Abstract:
Trauma is the study of medical problem associated with physical injury. Trauma is the leading cause
of death and disability in the first four decades of life and the third most common cause of death
overall. Abdomen is the third most commonly injured region requiring surgery in 25% cases.
Abdominal injury classified as blunt and penetrating trauma. Traumas become global problem with its
increasing morbidity, mortality and public health expenditure. Most abdominal injuries are preventable
.Establishment of preventive strategy as well as treatment guidelines requires clearer understanding of
the cause injury characteristics and treatment outcome of these patients. This information are lacking
in the study area where trauma is the leading emergency department attendant.
Objective
To determine prevalence and factors associated with abdominal trauma in Arbaminch general hospital.
Methods Institution based retrospective longitudinal study was done from November 8-December
8/2010ec.Data was collected by trained health professionals. Pretest was done and daily feedback was
given to data collectors to ensure data quality. The data was edited coded entered in to the computer
and analyzed using SPSS version21.00.
Result: Abdominal injury accounted for 15.4% of all injured patients. Males are four times more than
females. The mean age of patients was 29.7 with mode of 20 years. Blunt abdominal injuries were the
most common injury. Falls from heights are the commonest cause of abdominal injury22%.Most
patients are managed operatively and there were three spleenectomies.
Conclusion; the prevalence of abdominal injury is 15.4% in the study area. The common mechanism
of abdominal injury was blunt injury and accidental falls cause the highest abdominal injuries where as
motor vehicle accidents was the third frequent cause of abdominal injury . Young adults are the most
affected group where as male are more frequently affected.
