Casey et al. International Journal of Emergency Medicine 2012, 5:28 http://www.intjem.com/content/5/1/28 O R I G I N A L R E S E A R C H Open Access Analysis of traumatic injuries presenting to a referral hospital emergency department in Moshi, Tanzania Erica R Casey1,2, Florida Muro4, Nathan M Thielman2,3, Elifuraha Maya4, Eric W Ossmann1, Michael B Hocker1 and Charles J Gerardo1* Abstract Background: Injuries represent a significant and growing public health concern in the developing world, yet their impact on patients and the emergency health-care system in the countries of East Africa has received limited attention. This study evaluates the magnitude and scope of injury related disorders in the population presenting to a referral hospital emergency department in northern Tanzania. Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients presenting to the emergency department at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre was performed. A standardized data collection form was used for data abstraction from the emergency department logbook and the complete medical record for all injured patients. Patient demographics, mechanism of injury, location, type and outcomes were recorded. Results: Ten thousand six hundred twenty-two patients presented to the emergency department for evaluation and treatment during the 7-month study period. One thousand two hundred twenty-four patients (11.5%) had injuries. Males and individuals aged 15 to 44 years were most frequently injured, representing 73.4% and 57.8%, respectively. Road traffic injuries were the most common mechanism of injury, representing 43.9% of injuries. Head injuries (36.5%) and extremity injuries (59.5%) were the most common location of injury. The majority of injured patients, 59.3%, were admitted from the emergency department to the hospital wards, and 5.6%, required admission to an intensive care unit. Death occurred in 5.4% of injured patients. Conclusions: These data give a detailed and more robust picture of the patient demographics, mechanisms of injury, types of injury and patient outcomes from similar resource-limited settings. Keywords: World health, Injuries, Emergency medicine, Motor vehicles, Accidental falls Background Traumatic injuries represent a significant and growing disease burden in the developing world, and now repre- sent one of the leading causes of death in economically active adults in many low- and middle-income countries. Five of the top 15 causes of mortality in adults aged 15 to 29 years now result from injuries. In low-income countries long-term morbidity from injuries, as defined by disability- associated life years (DALY), is higher than morbidity caused by either cardiovascular conditions or malignancies * Correspondence: gerar001@mc.duke.edu 1Division of Emergency Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article [1]. This trend will continue as road traffic injuries (RTI) alone are projected to be the sixth leading cause of death and third highest cause of DALY by 2020 [2]. Likewise, the economic impact of injuries in low-income countries for individuals and for society as a whole is dis- proportionately high. The total economic costs amount to as much as 65 billion US dollars, more money than low- income countries receive in total assistance aid annually [3]. The cost-effectiveness of injury prevention and emer- gency treatment of injury in these resource-limited set- tings is not yet well understood as the development of emergency care systems is in its nascency. Despite the disproportionate numbers of death and disabilities caused by injuries in low- and middle-income © 2012 Casey et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.