• Soheil Saadat, Neda Rashidi-Ranjbar, Mohammad R Rasouli, and Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar.
• Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center, Tehran University Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• Ulus Travma Acil Cer. 2011 Mar 1; 17 (2): 149-51.

BackgroundWe characterize in this report the mechanism and type of skull fracture in urban populations of Iran.MethodsData including the general characteristics, mechanism of trauma, abbreviated injury scale, Glasgow coma scale, duration of hospitalization, and outcome of trauma patients registered from 1999 to 2004 were extracted from the Iranian National Trauma Registry database.ResultsOf 16,321 registered trauma patients, 1704 cases with skull fracture were found. The most common mechanism of trauma was motor-vehicle crash (MVC) (62.5%) followed by fall (23.8%). The majority of traffic victims were pedestrians (41.6%). Skull fracture was more likely to be seen in men (78.6%), with a mean age of 27.2 ± 17.7 years. In MVCs, skull base fracture was observed in 51.2% and vault fracture in 48.8% of patients. A significant difference was found in sex distribution between skull base and vault fracture (p=0.002). MVC was the mechanism of injury in 67.4% of skull base fracture cases compared to 58.1% of vault fracture cases (p<0.001).ConclusionSafety legislations and risk-specific intervention programs should be improved considerably in Iran.

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