Surveillance of injuries from external causes in the national social security reference hospital, Honduras

Abstract

Introduction: In Latin America, developing countries have an incidence rate of polytraumatism twice as high as in developed countries. Objective: To analyze external cause injuries (ECI) in patients with rights at the National Reference Hospital of Social Security, Honduras, in order to guide the formulation of policies for promotion, prevention and timely intervention. Methods: Crosssectional descriptive study, the population were patients diagnosed with ECI in the hospital’s emergency room. Stratified sampling was used Inclusion criteria were adult and child patients diagnosed with ECI, clinical history and daily care records. Exclusion criteria were adult and child patients diagnosed with ECI who were admitted without vital signs, who did not agree to participate in the study and who provided incomplete information. The information was collected via Google Forms. Informed consent was given to the participants. Results: Of the beneficiaries with ECI, 72.51% were male, the mean age was 36 years, 82.46% were direct beneficiaries and 69% were from Francisco Morazán. According to the mechanism of LCE according to intentionality, 98.8% were unintentional and of these 55.3% (94) were due to road accidents. The severity of the injury was moderate in 83.5%. Also, 3.5% were disabled. Discussion: ECI are currently an important public health problem, with road accidents being the most important mechanism for their triggering. The severity of these is moderate, causing damage to different parts of the body.