An analysis of Lower Limb Injuries among Motorcycle Accident Trauma Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre, Chennai, Tamilnadu

Dr. Jawahar Rajarathnam S; Dr. S. Arun Murugan

Volume : IX, Issue : III, March - 2020

An analysis of Lower Limb Injuries among Motorcycle Accident Trauma Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre, Chennai, Tamilnadu

Dr. Jawahar Rajarathnam S, Dr. S. Arun Murugan

Abstract :

Background: The number of motorcycles increased dramatically in the last decade all over the world. Road traffic accidents (RTA) involving motorcyclists are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity globally and more specifically in India and is turning out to be a major public health problem. Motorcyclists are most vulnerable groups of road accident victims and have a higher risk for lower limb injuries and its complications. This study was done to investigate the lower limb injury patterns among motorcyclist trauma patients attending physical medicine and rehablitation clinic at Kilpauk Medical College, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. Methods: This hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2019 and December 2019. A total of 190 study subjects with lower limb injuries due to motorcycle RTA were analysed using non- probability consecutive sampling method. The socio-demographic, accident details, lower limb injury survey and outcome assessment was done using a structured questionnaire. Data was coded, entered and analysed using SPSS version- 16. Result: The mean age of the study group was 30.32�12.14 years. Majority belonged to 31-40 years age group (35.79%) and 86.32% were males. Majority of the study subjects had soft tissue injuries (47.89%) followed by fracture of bones (40.00%). Injuries around ankle and foot were the common occurrence (53.16%) and leg bone fractures showed maximum incidence (47.37%). Around 2% of the subjects underwent lower limb amputation procedure. Conclusion: This study will stimulate more research into road and traffic engineering, safe designing of motorcycles and innovative health promotion and preventive strategies to raise the awareness of general population to this new age public health problem.