Head injury in the Hospital das Clinicas - Ribeirao Preto Medical School: Patient characteristics

The chart of 3468 patients with head injury assisted in the Hospital das Clinicas - Ribeirao Preto Medical School, from 1990 through 1992 were analyzed aiming to determine their main characteristics. Regarding sex, there was predominance of male. Accidental fall among children and traffic accidents among adults were the main causes of trauma. Daily distribution of assistance revelead an increase between 8 and 12 PM and during the week there was a constant flow from Tuesday to Friday and progressively increased on Saturday to Sunday. Approximately 75% of the patients presented mild head injury (score equal or superior to 13 in the Glasgow Coma Scale). Headache among children and vomiting, headache and alcoholic abuse among adults were the most frequent signs and symptoms at admission. At discharge 87.2% of patients had no symptoms and mortality was 5.7%. Peculiarities of head injury in Ribeirao Preto are discussed.