Fatality Rate of Trauma Victims in Southern Iran: A Five-Year Survey

[Background]In recent years traumatic injuries and their related mortality have become a major public health issue in Iran. This study aimed to assess injuries and mortality rate in southern Iran.[Methods]In this cross-sectional study, all trauma cases aged above 14 years, who were referred to Rajaee hospital, Shiraz, Iran from January 2010 to December 2014, were enrolled. Age, gender, cause of injury, and in-patient hospital mortality were extracted from the hospital information system and analyzed.[Results]The study participants included 41,182 patients, among whom 32,219 (78.2%) were male and 8,963 (21.8%) were female. The frequency of all injuries was higher in males. In the current study, fatality rate was 2.65%, male and female fatality rates were 2.70% and 2.45%, respectively. Even though admission had an ascending trend from 2010 to 2014, a noticeable reduction in the trend offatality rate was seen 4.5 % and 3% in pedestrian-related injuries and gunshot -related injuries.[Conclusions]In the light of medical advances in trauma management, allocating budget is necessary for prevention and implementationof vehicles’ safety protocols and developing educational programs to reduce mortality.