139 Injury trends among patients presenting to national hospital kandy in Sri Lanka from 2012 – 2021

<h3>Background</h3> Injuries are found to be one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality across the world. According to WHO, 8% of all deaths were following injuries. It is the number one cause for hospital admissions and the fourth leading cause of deaths in Sri Lanka. It is reported that at least 8 Sri Lankans receive medical care each minute due to injuries. <h3>Objective</h3> The objective of this study is to describe the trends of injury admissions and mortality according to gender and type of injury in National hospital Kandy from 2012- 2021. <h3>Method</h3> The web based data were collected from the Indoor morbidity and Mortality Return of National Hospital Kandy from 2012 – 2021. The injuries were categorized according to ICD 10. Trends were analysed using SPSS <h3>Results</h3> Since 2012, total injury admissions have increased over the years and peaked in 2016 and steadily decreased till 2021. However as a percentage of the total admissions, the peak was noted in 2013 (52%) and has decreased and remained constant from 2019 to 2021 (27%). Both male and female injury admissions show a similar trend. Male predominance was noted throughout the study period. Leading cause of admissions was fractures followed by open wounds and superficial injuries. Deaths following injuries have decreased from 2012 with the lowest in 2019. However an increasing trend was noted in 2020 and 2021. Deaths following injuries also show a male predominance and the leading cause was fractures, which was similar to injury admissions. However on the contrary to the admissions, the second leading cause for deaths was burns followed by open wounds and superficial injuries. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Injuries remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality with an increase in mortality trends in recent years. Therefore necessary preventive policies should be made and strategies should be implemented in the future.