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ss=""h4"">Introduction
Atte
nda
nce
s to provi
ncial emerge
ncy ce
ntre
s i
nvolvi
ng pe
netrati
ng
sharp trauma are a freque
nt occurre
nce a
nd repre
se
nt a
sig
nifica
nt burde
n o
n a departme
nt¡¯
s workload. The majority of
studie
s i
n thi
s area have bee
n ba
sed i
n major urba
n ho
spital
s. Thi
s i
s a
n ob
servatio
nal
study of patie
nt
s atte
ndi
ng Sta
nger Ho
spital Emerge
ncy Ce
ntre i
n the rural di
strict of Ilembe with pe
netrati
ng
sharp trauma.
ss=""h4"">Method
Notes collected from a two-month period in 2011 were reviewed and data collected to determine patient characteristics, wounds inflicted, distribution of injury and patient outcome.
ss=""h4"">Results
127 case notes were analysed. The majority of patients were young (median age 27 years), male (108/127; 85 % ), and had reportedly ingested alcohol (84/127; 66.1 % ). Most had more than one wound (median 2 wounds per patient) but did not suffer from significant blood loss and there were no deaths. Only 15/127 (11.8 % ) required hospital admission.
ss=""h4"">Discussion
Most patients suffered multiple wounds over multiple sites but these did not frequently require admission to hospital and caused no deaths. As long as clinicians remain vigilant for more severe injuries, these patients can generally be treated in low resourced environments. The majority of patients were discharged directly from the Emergency Centre making it the best place for these people to receive health education to prevent further injuries.