• Walter Mauritz, Alexandra Brazinova, Marek Majdan, Veronika Rehorcikova, and Johannes Leitgeb.
• Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Trauma Hospital 'Lorenz Boehler' , Vienna , Austria .
• Brain Inj. 2014 Jan 1;28(8):1096-101.

BackgroundTo investigate changes in TBI mortality in Austria during 1980-2012 and to identify causes for these changes.MethodsStatistik Austria provided data (from death certificates) on all TBI deaths from January 1980-December 2012. Data included year/month of death, age, sex, residency of the cases and mechanism of accident. Data regarding the size of the age groups was obtained from Statistik Austria. Mortality rates (MR; deaths/10(5) population/year) were calculated for male vs. female patients and for different age groups. Changes in mechanisms of TBI were evaluated.ResultsThe MR decreased from 28.1 to 11.8 deaths/10(5) population/year. Traffic-related TBI deaths decreased from 62% to 9%. This caused a significant decrease in TBI deaths in younger age groups. Fall-related TBI deaths (mostly geriatric cases) remained unchanged. Falls became the leading cause; its rate increased from 22% to 64% of all TBI deaths. Thus, the mean age of fatal TBI cases increased by 20 years and the rate of cases aged <60 years decreased from 71% to 28%. Another important cause was suicide by firearms; its rate increased from 10% to 23% of all TBI deaths.ConclusionsThese findings warrant better prevention of falls in the elderly and of suicides.

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