• Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2009

    Comparative Study

    Terrorism-related injuries versus road traffic accident-related trauma: 5 years of experience in Israel.

    • Kobi Peleg, Bella Savitsky, and Israeli Trauma Group.
    • Israel National Center for Trauma and Emergency Medicine, Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Tel Hashomer 52621, Israel. kobip@gertner.health.gov.il
    • Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2009 Dec 1;3(4):196-200.

    BackgroundTerrorism victims comprise the minority among trauma injured people, but this small population imposes a burden on the health care system. Thirty percent of the population injured in terrorist activities experienced severe trauma (injury severity score > or =16), more than half of them need a surgical procedure, and 25% of the population affected by terrorism had been admitted to intensive care. Furthermore, compared with patients with non-terrorism-related trauma, victims of terrorism often arrive in bulk, as part of a mass casualty event. This poses a sudden load on hospital resources and requires special organization and preparedness. The present study compared terrorism-related and road accident-related injuries and examined clinical characteristics of both groups of patients.MethodsThis study is a retrospective study of all patients injured through terrorist acts and road traffic accidents from September 29, 2000 to December 31, 2005, and recorded in the Israel Trauma Registry. Data on the nature of injuries, treatment, and outcome were obtained from the registry. Medical diagnoses were extracted from the registry and classified based on International Classification of Diseases coding. Diagnoses were grouped to body regions, based on the Barell Injury Diagnosis Matrix.ResultsThe study includes 2197 patients with terrorism-related injuries and 30,176 patients injured in road traffic accidents. All in all, 27% of terrorism-related casualties suffered severe to critical injuries, comparing to 17% among road traffic accident-related victims. Glasgow Coma Scale scores ConclusionsCasualties from terrorist events are more severely injured and require more resources relative to casualties from road traffic accidents.

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