The epidemiology of trauma in an intensive care unit in Bahrain.

Injuries resulting from trauma are over-represented in Bahrain's intensive care unit beds. Using data from 1984 and 1985, this study examines the most severe etiologic agents and high-risk population groups among ICU trauma patients. Road traffic accidents were the principal cause of admission, accounting for 57% of all injury admissions. Most occurred in pedestrians suffering from severe head injury. Poisonings were the second largest category, followed by falls. In comparison with medical cases admitted to the ICU during the same 2-year period, the trauma cases included a disproportionate number of children and males in their most productive years of life, further adding to the economic burden which injuries have inflicted on this small country. The authors call for a new approach, namely passive prevention such as environmental modifications and legislation and tertiary prevention such as improvement of the country's underutilized ambulance service.