Perfil Epidemiológico de Trauma en el Centro de Trauma y Emergencia Quirúrgica de un Hospital de Referencia del Sur de Ecuador, Septiembre a Diciembre de 2014

Introduction: Trauma is a global socio-health problem as it causes millions of deaths around the world, traffic accidents are the main responsible for admissions in underdeveloped countries, there are databases that have allowed improving this increasing rate of deaths due to multiple trauma. Objective: To elaborate the epidemiological profile of patients who were treated for trauma in the emergency department of a referral hospital in southern Ecuador, during the period September-December 2014. Materials and methods: this is a descriptive cross-sectional study, in a sample of patients attended for trauma, poisoning and some other external cause consequences, and for extreme causes of morbidity and mortality, for a period of 4 months, by a group of students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Cuenca, through the use of electronic devices 24 hours a day. Results: more than half were in the age groups 20 to 29 and 10 to 19 years, with 30.5% and 20.8% respectively. The average age was 31.44 years. Some 68.9% (n = 1,068) were male. Most were single (52.1%). Almost all self-identified as mestizo (97.61%). Secondary education level reached 40.1%. Data were obtained from 1,550 patients, out of a total of 2,159 who were treated during that period. Discussion: in countries of the area, certain similarity was evidenced regarding our results; on the contrary, with developed countries where they work with information that is updated daily, divergence was found in the epidemiological results with respect to ours. Conclusions: Trauma registries are important inputs for the adequate approach to traumatic pathology; the data obtained show the geographical reality of our environment. The use of this registry provides inputs for the trauma tripod: education, environmental modification and legislation.