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. 2015 Aug 31;12(9):10723-38.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph120910723.

Medical Efforts and Injury Patterns of Military Hospital Patients Following the 2013 Lushan Earthquake in China: A Retrospective Study

Peng Kang  1 , Bihan Tang  2 , Yuan Liu  3 , Xu Liu  4 , Zhipeng Liu  5 , Yipeng Lv  3 , Lulu Zhang  6
Affiliations

Medical Efforts and Injury Patterns of Military Hospital Patients Following the 2013 Lushan Earthquake in China: A Retrospective Study

Peng Kang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate medical efforts and injury profiles of victims of the Lushan earthquake admitted to three military hospitals. This study retrospectively investigated the clinical records of 266 admitted patients evacuated from the Lushan earthquake area. The 2005 version of the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS-2005) was used to identify the severity of each injury. Patient demographic data, complaints, diagnoses, injury types, prognosis, means of transportation, and cause of injury were all reviewed individually. The statistical analysis of the study was conducted primarily using descriptive statistics. Of the 266 patients, 213 (80.1%) were admitted in the first two days. A total of 521 injury diagnoses were recorded in 266 patients. Earthquake-related injuries were primarily caused by buildings collapsing (38.4%) and victims being struck by objects (33.8%); the most frequently injured anatomic sites were the lower extremities and pelvis (34.2%) and surface area of the body (17.9%). Fracture (41.5%) was the most frequent injury, followed by soft tissue injury (27.5%), but crush syndrome was relatively low (1.2%) due to the special housing structures in the Lushan area. The most commonly used procedure was suture and dressings (33.7%), followed by open reduction and internal fixation (21.9%).The results of this study help formulate recommendations to improve future disaster relief and emergency planning in remote, isolated, and rural regions of developing countries.

Keywords: Lushan; earthquake injuries; injury; injury patterns; medical evacuation; military hospital; natural disaster; rescue management; trauma.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of three catastrophic earthquakes in the past ten years in China.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of the patients admitted to the three military hospitals on the basis of their date of admission and discharge.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Age and gender distribution of the earthquake-related patients admitted to the three military hospitals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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