Background and Objective: Head injuries, with their detrimental consequences, can impose considerable costs on the health, treatment, and rehabilitation sectors for both patients and the healthcare system. Therefore, the implementation of appropriate preventive programs for the management of patients with brain injuries is essential, which requires initial epidemiological assessments. The aim of the present study is to investigate the epidemiology of head injuries in patients presenting to the emergency department of Ganjavian Hospital in Dezful.
Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on all patients with head injuries presenting to the emergency department of Ganjavian Hospital in Dezful from 2019 to 2021. Demographic information and data pertaining to the time, cause, and outcome of the injury in terms of the duration of hospitalization were collected and examined using a checklist.
Findings: In the present study, a total of 996 patients with head injuries were evaluated. The main causes of injury included traffic accidents with a share of 66.46%, falls from height with 97%, and the smallest share was related to physical altercations with 4.61%. Of the 83 patients with head injuries, 69 were male and 14 were female. Males sustained head injuries approximately 4 times more frequently than females. In terms of the season of occurrence, most head injuries occurred in the spring and during the late hours of the night, and some secondary injuries and prolonged hospitalization were associated with the method of patient transfer from the scene of the accident to the emergency department. On average, patients were hospitalized for 8.5 days.
Conclusion: The results of the study demonstrated that the most common cause of head injury is traffic accidents. Therefore, health policymakers should reconsider the management of human resources and available facilities.