Liver trauma: prevalence and epidemiological characteristics of victims referred to the Forensic Department of Palmas, Tocantins
- Autores: Danilo Lopes Castro, Maurício Barbosa Ferreira, Marcus Vinicius de Mello Pinto, Paulo Martins Reis Junior
- Localización: Scientia Medica, ISSN-e 1980-6108, Vol. 25, Nº. 1, 2015
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
Aims: To assess the prevalence and epidemiological characteristics of hepatic trauma in victims referred to the Forensic Department of Palmas, State of Tocantins (TO), Brazil.
Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed with all the victims referred to the Forensic Department of Palmas from January 2006 to December 2010, to investigate violent deaths with severe damage to the liver tissue. The data were collected from the Forensic Department records. The following data were evaluated: sex, age, mechanism of injury (in case of motor vehicle accidents, the type of vehicle involved), types of trauma associated with abdominal trauma, presence of abdominal lesions associated with hepatic injury, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Organ Injury Scale (AAST-OIS), and number of deaths caused directly by hepatic trauma. The statistical analysis included absolute and relative frequencies of the variables.
Results: A total of 241 (13.4%) out of 1,796 victims had liver trauma, among whom 85.5% were male and 42.9% belonged to the 21-30 year age group. Motor vehicle accidents were the major cause of trauma in 143 cases, (59.3%), involving mainly motorcycles (53 cases or 37%). Blunt trauma was the most frequent mechanism of injury, having occurred in 179 cases (74.3%). The right lobe was injured in 98 cases (40.7%). A total of 147 victims (61%) had polytrauma. Splenic injury, present in 65 (27%) of the cases, was mostly associated with liver trauma. Liver injury of grade II was detected in 102 cases (42.4%) and was therefore the most prevalent type of damage. Twenty-one (8.7%) deaths were directly related to liver trauma.
Conclusions: Blunt injury, caused mainly by motor vehicle accidents (especially with motorcycles), was the most common type of liver trauma observed in violent deaths, according to the records of the Forensic Department of Palmas. Young men of working age were the most frequent victims with liver trauma.
