Craniocerebral trauma in motorcyclists: relation of helmet use and trauma severity

• Autor(a) principal: Dutra,Viviane da Cunha
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Caregnato,Rita Catalina Aquino, Figueiredo,Maria Renita Burg, Schneider,Daniela da Silva
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Acta Paulista de Enfermagem (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-21002014000500015
• topic: Accidents, traffic; Emergency medical services; Brain injuries; Motorcycle

Objective Relating the helmet use with the severity of craniocerebral trauma in injured motorcyclists treated at a trauma hospital. Methods A cross-sectional, retrospective study. The study population consisted of 188 records of service to injured motorcyclists in a four-month period. The Glasgow Coma Scale was used to characterize the severity of trauma. Results The profile is 84.6% of males and 55.3% aged between 18 and 29 years. Regarding the use of helmet at the time of the accident, 51.6% used, 6.4% did not use, 17.6% used it inappropriately, and there were no records in 24.5%. Among the 51.6% of motorcyclists who used the protective gear, 86.6% had mild craniocerebral trauma, 12.4% had moderate, and 1% severe. The most serious injuries occurred in motorcyclists in which there were no records on helmet use. Conclusion The motorcyclists who used the helmet, had mild craniocerebral trauma in 44.7% of cases, moderate trauma in 6.4%, and severe trauma in 0.5%. Victims without records of the situation of helmet use had severe trauma (p≤0.000).