• Annalisa Rosso, Alexandra Brazinova, Ivan Janciak, Ingrid Wilbacher, Martin Rusnak, Walter Mauritz, and Australian Severe TBI Study Investigators.
• INRO (International Neurotrauma Research Organisation), Vienna, Austria.
• Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 2007 Feb 1;119(1-2):29-34.

ObjectivesThe goal of this paper is to describe the hospital-based epidemiology of severe TBI in Austria.Patients And MethodsData sets from 492 patients included in the study by 5 Austrian hospitals were available. Age and gender distribution, education, occupation, location of trauma, mechanism of injury, alcohol use, type and severity of injury, associated injuries, length of intensive care unit stay, and intensive care unit outcome were evaluated for each of the 5 centers.ResultsThe sample represents roughly 13% of all cases with severe TBI which were treated in Austrian hospitals during the study period. Mean age was 48 +/- 21 years, and most patients were male (72%). The most important trauma locations were roads (50%), home (24%), outdoors (10%), and workplace (7%). Transportrelated trauma was the most important mechanism (44%) followed by falls < 3 m (30%), falls > 3 m (11%), and sports injuries (5%). Detailed analysis of transport-related trauma showed that car accidents (45%) were most common, followed by pedestrian (20%), motorbike (19%), and bicycle (16%) accidents. Significant differences between the centers were found for most of the variables analyzed. The severe traumatic brain injury was associated with spinal cord injury in 10%, and with severe multiple trauma in 38% of cases. Intensive care mortality was 31.7%. There were no significant correlations between mechanisms of injury and severity of trauma, nor between mechanisms and ICU outcome.ConclusionsEpidemiology of severe traumatic brain injuries in Austria is not much different from other industrialized countries. Traffic accidents are responsible for the majority of traumas, stressing the importance of road injury prevention. Attention should also be paid to the specific risks of older people and to prevent injuries at home.

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