BackgroundTraffic accidents are ranked first as the cause of personal injury throughout the world. The high number of traffic accidents yielding injuries and fatalities makes them of great importance to Emergency Departments.Material/MethodsPatients admitted to Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Adult Emergency Department due to traffic accidents were investigated epidemiologically. Differences between groups were evaluated by Kruskall-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon tests. A value of p<0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.ResultsWe included 2003 patients over 16 years of age. The mean age was 39.6±16.1 and 55% were males. Admissions by ambulance and due to motor vehicle accidents were the most common. In 2004 the rate of traffic accidents (15.3%) was higher than the other years, the most common month was May (10.8%), and the most common time period was 6 pm to 12 am (midnight). About half of the patients (51.5%) were admitted in the first 30 minutes. Life-threatening condition was present in 9.6% of the patients. Head trauma was the most common type of trauma, with the rate of 18.3%. Mortality rate was 81.8%. The average length of hospital stay was 403 minutes (6.7 hours) and the average cost per patient was 983±4364 TL.ConclusionsFurther studies are needed to compare the cost found in this study with the mean cost for Turkey. However, the most important step to reduce the direct and indirect costs due to traffic accidents is the prevention of these accidents.

ObjectiveSince the homeless are at greater risk of encountering health problems than the general population, the reasons for and incidence of their presentations to emergency departments also vary. The purpose of this study was to determine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of Turkish homeless patients who brought to the emergency department by ambulance.Materials and methodsThe records of homeless adult patients brought to the ED by 112 emergency service ambulance teams over a 1-year period from January to December, 2014, were examined retrospectively.ResultsThirty-six (21.56%) of the homeless patients enrolled in the study presented due to trauma, and 131 (78.44%) due to non-traumatic causes. One hundred thirty-seven (82.04%) of the total patient group were male. The mean age of the non-trauma patients was 47.3 ± 15.2 years (range, 18–81 years), and the mean age of the trauma patients was 36.9 ± 14.4 years (range, 18–63 years). The most common reason for presentation among patients presenting to the emergency department for non-trauma reasons was clouded consciousness (n = 39, 23.35%), followed by general impaired condition (n = 26, 15.57%), respiratory difficulty (n = 25 14.97%) and abdominal pain (n = 21, 12.57%). The most common reason for presentation among trauma cases was traffic accidents (n = 13, 7.78%), followed by sharp implement injury (n = 9, 5.39%). Four (2.4%) homeless patients died in the emergency department, three (%1.8) homeless patients discharged from the emergency department, and the remaining 160 (95.8%) were admitted to the hospital.ConclusionHomeless patients may present to the emergency department due to traumatic or non-traumatic causes. Admission levels are high among these patients, who may have many acute and chronic problems, and appropriate precautions must be taken in the management of these subjects in the emergency department.

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Introduction: In the case of patients presenting to the emergency department with confusion, many diseases should be considered in the differential diagnosis. Cerebral malaria is a serious complication of malaria presenting with somnolence, coma, delirium, and seizures and has a mortality rate of 20%.Case Report: In this report, we present the case of a patient who was brought by ambulance to the emergency department with sudden onset of confusion, which was eventually diagnosed as cerebral malaria. Conclusion:In patients presenting with confusion, obtaining detailed and repetitive history can be life-saving. Keywords: Consciousness, fever, malariaReceived: 21.08.2014 Accepted: 16.12.2014 ÖZET Giriş: Acil servise bilinç bulanıklığı ile başvuran hastalarda ayırıcı tanıda birçok hastalık gözden geçirilmelidir. Bir sıtma komplikasyonu olan serebral sıtma somnolans, koma, deliryum ve nöbetle seyreden, mortalitesi %20'leri bulan ciddi klinik bir tablodur.Olgu Sunumu: Acil servise ambulansla ani başlayan bilinç bulanıklığı ile getirilen ve serebral sıtma tanısı alan bir olgu sunulmuştur.Sonuç: Bilinç bulanıklığı ile başvuran hastalarda ayrıntılı ve tekrarlayan hikaye almak hayat kurtarıcı olabilmektedir.