Differences between the sexes in motorcycle-related injuries and fatalities at a Taiwanese level I trauma center

Abstract

BackgroundFemale patients present with unique physiological and behavioral characteristics compared to male patients. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the injury patterns, injury characteristics, and mortality of male and female patients hospitalized for treatment of motorcycle accident-related trauma in a level I trauma center.MethodsRetrospective analysis of motorcycle-related injuries from the Trauma Registry System was performed to identify and compare 4028 male and 2919 female patients hospitalized for treatment between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2013.ResultsThe female patients were younger, less often drunken, more often wore helmets, were transported by emergency medical services, and arrived at the emergency department between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. compared to male patients. Analysis of Abbreviated Injury Scale scores revealed that female patients sustained significantly higher rates of injuries to the extremities, but lower rates of injuries to the head/neck, face, and thorax than male patients did. Female patients had a significant lower Injury Severity Score (ISS) and adjusted odds ratio of in-hospital mortality (AOR 0.83, 95% CI: 0.83–0.86) after adjustment by ISS. However, the logistic regression analysis of propensity score-matched patients with adjusted confounders including helmet-wearing status and alcohol intoxication revealed that the gender did not significantly influence mortality (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.47–1.43; p = 0.475), implying the an associated risky behaviors may attribute to the difference of odds of mortality between the male and female patients. In addition, a significantly fewer female patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and female patients had a significantly shorter hospital and ICU length of stay.ConclusionFemale motorcycle riders have different injury characteristics, lower ISS and in-hospital mortality, and present with a bodily injury pattern that differs from that of male motorcycle riders.Level of evidenceEpidemiologic study, level III.

Association between operation‐ and operator‐related factors and surgical complications among patients undergoing free‐flap reconstruction for head and neck cancers: A propensity score‐matched study of 1,865 free‐flap reconstructions

“…This study was approved by the institutional review board of the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, a 2,686‐bed medical center providing care to patients primarily from southern Taiwan (Hsieh, Hsu, Hsieh, & Chen, ; Hsieh, Liu, Hsu, Hsieh, & Chen, ), with the reference number of 201800440B0. We designed a retrospective study to review the data of all 2,004 patients with head and neck cancer who underwent tumor wide excision and primary free‐flap reconstruction or secondary free‐flap reconstruction between March 2008 and February 2017.…”

Effect of motorcycle helmet types on head injuries: evidence from eight level-I trauma centres in Taiwan

“…The official statistics of Taiwan [2] demonstrated that in 2016, 51% of road traffic fatalities involved motorcyclists. The head was the most commonly injured body region among motorcyclists in Taiwan [3,4].…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the effect of the helmet type on motorcyclist injuries in Taiwan, where motorcycle is a primary transportation mode. Some studies [4,5,8,17,24,25] were conducted using regional hospital data, which may not provide a thorough insight into the underlying relationship between helmet types and motorcyclist injuries. In Taiwan, where motorcycles are the most common means of transportation, the number of hospitalised motorcycle-related head injuries decreased by 33% following implementation of a universal helmet law in 1997 [26].…”

Comparison of the outcomes between free anteromedial thigh flap and anterolateral thigh flap in head and neck cancer reconstruction: Analysis of propensity‐score‐matched patient cohorts

“…The present retrospective study retrieved the detailed information of patients from the registered free flap database and electric medical records of Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (Hsieh, Chen, Hsu, Hsieh, & Chien, 2018; Hsieh, Hsu, Hsieh, & Chen, 2017; Hsieh, Liu, Hsu, Hsieh, & Chen, 2017). In this study, the patient cohort included 1,728 patients who underwent ALT or AMT free flap reconstruction after head and neck cancer surgery between March 1, 2008 and February 28, 2017.…”