Characteristics of Injured Pregnant Women by the Traffic Accidents

Purpose: Trauma is one of the major causes of maternal and fetal mortality, and the most common cause of maternal trauma is a traffic accident. In Korea, data about traffic accidents in pregnant women are not widely collected and classified so far. Hence, we studied and analyzed the characteristics of injured pregnant women by the traffic accidents. Methods: From January 2002 to August 2011, pregnant women who were in traffic accidents visiting Emergency Department were studied. Pregnancy out come and the degree of the damage were determined through the retrospective analysis of the medical records. Results: The pregnant women who visited after traffic accidents were total 204 patients. Among them, 176 patients had no complication related to the traffic accidents, 28 patients had complications. The incidence of the complications in the 3rd trimester pregnants was statistically significant higher than that in the other trimesters. The analysis based on the mechanism shows more complications in the pedestrian injury. In the survey by the type of the vehicles, the complications from the trauma associated with a car had lower incidence. The patients arrived at the emergency center by walking had greater numbers than who arrived by an ambulance in the groups occurred the complications. The patients suffered complications who complained pain in trunk especially in abdomen and pelvis than in extremities and complained vaginal discharge, and those showed a statistically significant greater incidence. Conclusion: When pregnant women were injured by the traffic accidents, the factors related to the poor pregnant prognosis were trimester of pregnancy, means of visiting the emergency center, trauma mechanism, and complaining symptoms. Therefore, these factors may be used as a prognostic tool to predict an incidence of complications, length of hospital stay and rate of complications and can be used to plan for treatments.

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