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Prevalence and Characteristics of Earthquake-Related Head Injuries: A Systematic Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2021

Yutaka Igarashi Open the ORCID record for Yutaka Igarashi [Opens in a new window] ,
Narumi Matsumoto ,
Tatsuhiko Kubo ,
Masahiro Yamaguchi ,
Ryuta Nakae ,
Hidetaka Onda ,
Shoji Yokobori ,
Yuichi Koido  and
Hiroyuki Yokota
Yutaka Igarashi*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
Narumi Matsumoto
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
Tatsuhiko Kubo
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health and Health Policy, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
Masahiro Yamaguchi
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan Department of Neurosurgery, Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokusoh Hospital, Chiba, Japan
Ryuta Nakae
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
Hidetaka Onda
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
Shoji Yokobori
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
Yuichi Koido
Affiliation:
Institute for Clinical Research, National Disaster Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan
Hiroyuki Yokota
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
*
Corresponding author: Yutaka Igarashi, Email: igarashiy@nms.ac.jp
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Abstract

Objective:

We conducted a systematic review to determine the prevalence and characteristics of earthquake-associated head injuries for better disaster preparedness and management.

Methods:

We searched for all publications related to head injuries and earthquakes from 1985 to 2018 in MEDLINE and other major databases. A search was conducted using “earthquakes,” “wounds and injuries,” and “cranio-cerebral trauma” as a medical subject headings.

Results:

Included in the analysis were 34 articles. With regard to the commonly occurring injuries, earthquake-related head injury ranks third among patients with earthquake-related injuries. The most common trauma is lower extremity (36.2%) followed by upper extremity (19.9%), head (16.6%), spine (13.1%), chest (11.3%), and abdomen (3.8%). The most common earthquake-related head injury was laceration or contusion (59.1%), while epidural hematoma was the most common among inpatients with intracranial hemorrhage (9.5%) followed by intracerebral hematoma (7.0%), and subdural hematoma (6.8%). Mortality rate was 5.6%.

Conclusion:

Head injuries were found to be a commonly occurring trauma along with extremity injuries. This knowledge is important for determining the demands for neurosurgery and for adequately managing patients, especially in resource-limited conditions.

Keywords

craniocerebral traumaearthquakeshead injuriesclosedintracranial hemorrhagetraumaticskull fractures
Type
Systematic Review
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , June 2022 , pp. 1253 - 1258
Copyright
© Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021

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