| dc.description.abstract | : Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are a major global public health problem and
are now a recognized neglected pandemic. Head injuries cause immediate death in
25% of acute trauma. We conducted this study to determine the immediate outcomes
in adult with head injury following RTA. A prospective study was conducted among
178 adult patients and followed up for two weeks to determine immediate outcomes.
Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine predictor variables of
immediate outcome. Majority had moderate disability (38.2%), then severe disability
(25.8%) and good recovery (24.7%) at two weeks. Persistent vegetative state and
death occurred in 2 and 9% of patients respectively. Sixty-three percent of patients
had favourable outcome. Convulsions, intracerebral haemorrhage had significant
p-values at bivariate analysis (0.019, 0.008 respectively) at GCS. Vomiting, convulsions,
extra cerebral haemorrhage and intracerebral haemorrhage had significant
association p values (0.000, 0.001, 0.000 and 0.000 respectively) at two weeks by
GOS. Level of consciousness (p-value = 0.000), intracerebral haemorrhage (p = 0.003),
skull fractures (p = 0.001) and surgery (p = 0.016) were statistically significant at
multivariate analysis. GCS and GOS were important in assessment of immediate
outcomes at 2 weeks but GOS was a more reliable assessment tool. | en_US |
