Revista de trauma y tratamiento

Study of the Unknown Patients at Advanced Trauma Centre of a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India

Abstract

Ranjana Singh1, Mandeep Kumar Sachdeva1*, Vipin Koushal1, Ashok Kumar1, Yadvinder Singh1, Manish Goyal2 and Loyce Renuka1

Introduction: A large number of patients are admitted to government hospitals without any information or identification; these patients are known as "unknown" patients. In any healthcare setting, unknown and unaccompanied patients pose a substantial challenge to the treating doctor and Hospital Administration.

Aims and Objective: The study aimed to determine the demographic characteristics of such patients, their care management, the primary cause of injury and the outcome.

Material and methods: It was a hospital-based, prospective and retrospective study, using total enumeration, done in the Advanced Trauma Centre of tertiary care institute (PGIMER, Chandigarh); the study period was from 1st January 2018 to 31st March 2022.

Results: A total of 53583 patients reported to the trauma centre, out of which 438 were unknown patients, out of which 413 (94.3%) were males, and 25 (5.7%) were females. The significant age group seen as unknown patients was of 30-60 years accounting for 71.5% (313). The primary cause of trauma was a road traffic accident (RTA), accounting for 83.6%(366), majority of unknown got admitted to neurosurgery department accounting 51.4% (225), followed by orthopedics 21.7% (95), majority of these unknown patients were brought by health care worker 74% (324). On analyzing the outcome, the majority were discharged 62.1% (272), followed by brought dead or died here 31.3% (137), there were 5.7% (25) patients absconded, and 0.9% (4) were referred back.