Assault, a burden for a rural hospital in Lesotho.

A retrospective study among adult inpatients revealed the prevalence and characteristics of assault trauma in a district hospital in Southern Lesotho. A comparison with non-assault trauma and non-trauma inpatients highlights the burden of this problem on the available resources. In one year 20.6% of all admissions of adult men were victims of purposely inflicted injuries while 11.4% were due to other (accidental) trauma. For women these figures were 5.8% and 10.3% respectively. Post mortem examination at the hospital allowed an estimation of the homicide rate of 40.9 per 100,000 in the catchment area of the hospital. The age group of 20 to 29 years constitute 40% of the assault patients. Knives and sticks cause most damage and the head receives the more serious blows in 67% of the cases. The group of assault victims needed considerably more care than other patients.