Correlations Of Computerized Topographic Severity With Clinical Severity And Outcome Of Head Injury Patients At Tikur Anbessa Specialized Referral And Teaching Hospital Addis Abeba Ethiopia
Background: Polytrauma due to road traffic accidents (RTA) is the leading cause of headrninjury in all age groups especially in young adults. More than half of the cases of head traumarnare caused by RTA, leading to 70% of all deaths due to brain injury.rnOBJECTIVE: To correlate the computed tomographic (CT) severity of head injury patientsrnwith their clinical severity score (GCS) and outcomes.rnMATERIALS AND METHODS: An institutional based prospective cross sectional study wasrnconducted among 131head injury patients over a period of 6 months (from March to Augustrn2017). The patients’ levels of consciousness (GCS) were determined and non-contrast head CTrnscans were performed from vertex to base of the head. The causes for head injury were recorded.rnThe outcomes of patients were also documented from direct telephone communications and chartrnretrieval and document reviews using patients’ medical record numbers.rnRESULTS: The age range of patients was 6months to 80 years. The mean age of patients wasrn30.9 with male to female ratio being 5:1.The most common causes for head injury werernRTA(46.6%),fighting(32.1%) and falling down injury(19.1%),The most common CT findingsrnwere skull fractures(51.9%),soft tissue swelling(34.4%),brain contusions(32.8%),brainrnherniation(29.8%),brain edema(29.0%),SDH(22.9),SAH(18.3%),%),EDH(16.0%)andrnIVH(6.9).There were a total of 6(6.6%) deaths which were resulted from fall down (3cases),rnRTA (2cases) and fighting (1case). Most patients had Rotterdam CT severity score of 2 and GCSrnof 13 and above. Loss of consciousness and vomiting were the commonest clinical features inrnhead injury patients brought to emergency department.rnCONCLUSION: The Rotterdam CT scores of most of the patients in this study wasrn2.Significant correlation (P-value