Road Traffic Injuries at Kigali University Central Teaching Hospital, Rwanda.

Background: Injury and deaths due to road traffic crashes are a major public health problem in developing countries. More than 3000 people die on the world's roads every day. Tens of millions of people are injured or disabled every year. Children, pedestrians, cyclists and the elderly are among the most vulnerable of road users. More than 85% of all deaths and 90% of disability adjusted life years lost from road traffic injuries occur in developing countries. Road traffic injuries in developing countries particularly affect the productive (working) age group (15-44 years) and children. Among children aged 0-4 and 5-14 years, the number of fatalities per 100 000 population in low income countries was about six times greater than in high income countries in 1998. Police data for Rwanda has revealed a decline in the number of road traffic accidents. This reduction in number of RTA has been attributed to the vigilance of Traffic Police, This study was aimed at determining the pattern of road traffic injuries seen at Kigali.
Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study done at Kigali Central University Teaching Hospital in the Department of Emergence and in the Trauma hospitalization wards. Records of all cases of road traffic injuries were retrieved and studied.Data collected was filled in a standard form in which data obtained was recorded. Parameters studied included the age, sex, place of residence, province of origin, means of transport used.
Results: Of the 1101 road traffic accident victims, 558 (50.7%) were in the 16 to 30 age group. Only 7.2% of the cases were aged 46 years and above with only 21 (1.9%) being above 60 years. Table 3 shows the socio-demographic findings among patients with road traffic injuries seen at Kigali University Teaching Hospital (CHUK). There was a predominance of males accounting for 78.7% with a male to female ratio of 3.7: 1. Most patients (90.2% were residents of Kigali city. Most patients came to CHUK without going through the established referral systems (Table 4). The commonest injuries were wound and contusions (54.7%), lower limb injuries (41.9%) and head injury (29.4%). There were 103 deaths (9.4% mortality rate). Fifty eight (56.3%) of the deaths occurred before arrival to hospital