Abstract:

Background: Injuries are the leading causes of death, hospitalizations and disabilities. Traumatic injuries, poisoning and burns are the major types of injuries reported in Sri Lanka, according to the National Health Statistics. Life style changes such as using alcohol and increasing of vehicle usages are believed to be having relation with the prevalence of injuries. Gender and age group also have effects on types of injuries.

Objective: To identify the prevalence of various types of acute injuries in Batticaloa, Teaching Hospital.

Method: It is a cross sectional descriptive study involving simple random sample of one hundred and ninety one (206) injured patients who were atmitted at Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa.Data was collected by using a pre designed structured interviewer administered questionnaire.

Results: Altogether, 206 patients with an age range of 01-80 years were studied. Males accounted for 62.8 % of the study sample. Majority of causes are dog bite (33.5 %), and RTA (24.2 %), fall injury (16 %), poisoning (6.3 %) and Cat bite (8.7 %).Among that, 50 % injuries are occur due to the animals in whole injuries. There was a significant relationship between age groups and causes of injuries and there was no relationship between habit of alcohol use and accidental injuries. Among body parts, upper limb (35 %) and lower limb (53 %) are most often affected by injuries. 11. 165 % of injured people get disabilities due to their injuries.

Conclusion: According to this study, majority of injuries are caused by dog bites, road traffic accidents (RTA), fall injuries, poisoning and cat bites respectively. Considering the affected body parts, injuries in upper extremities and lower extremities are more common. Around 11. 2 % of patients get disabilities as the consequences of their injuries.

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