A hospital-based trauma registry in the Republic of Moldova - Findings from a 1-Year Study

Introduction:
In the last 14 years, traumatic injuries were the fourth leading cause of death in the Republic of Moldova. Despite being a national priority, few local resources are available for collecting injury data. Trauma registries are extremely importnant to public health professionals, clinical practitioners, and researchers because they allow for defining the burden of injury by identifying the patient’s demographic, mechanism, risk factors, outcomes, and trends, as well as allowing for data comparison with neighboring countries.
Our objectives were to identify the major causes of hospital-treated injuries by piloting a trauma registry, for one year, in three different countries as part of the iCREATE Project, Republic of Moldova being one of them.

Methods:
The iCREATE Injury Registry, funded through the US National Institutes of Health, was piloted in 2018 within two Emergency Departments in Chisinau. Data colection tool was developed based on the WHO Recommendations, ICD-10, IDB-JAMIE Project, and Iowa Emergency Unit Registry. All patients with a diagnosis of injury were included. Redcap electronic tool was used to upload basic demographics, injury details, event detail, injury severity, outcome, and five additional modules using patients’ medical records. Ethics committee approval was obtained. Results. There were 7866 patient records included in the registry. The mean age of patients was 42,6 years (Std. 21.14), 57,2% males and 41,6% females. Urban areas accounted for 76.9% of injuries, with the majority being unintentional (90,5%). Falls (67,1%), cut/pierce (10,7%) and road traffic injuries (4,7%) were the most common mechanisms of injury. Seniors (60+) were the leading group in relation to falls, while people aged 18-29 were mostly injured in road traffic crashes. Home (55,7%) and streets/highways (26,5%) were the most common places of injury occurrence. Head (12,4%) followed by the ankle (11,8%), were the most frequently injured body parts, with fracture (32,4%) and contusion/bruise (23,1%) being the main types of injury. More than one-third (37,4%, N=2914) of all patients needed further treatment and were admitted to the hospitals, while 61,4% received treatment in the emergency room and released home. Many variables, including injury occurrence, employment, intent, injury mechanism, Injury Severity Score, alcohol and drug screen, could not be obtained from the patient's medical records or could only partly be obtained.

Conclusions:
These data indicate that injuries are a health priority for all sociodemographic populations and geographical areas. Data such as these can help direct prevention and treatment efforts.

Keywords: Trauma registry, injury prevention, Emergency Department

Svetlana Cociu1, Angela Cazacu-Stratu1, Serghei Cebanu1, Patricia Marga2, Diana Dulf2 , Corinne Peek-Asa3 1 Department of Preventive Medicine, Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova 2 Department of Public Health, College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj- Napoca, Romania 3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, San Diego, USA