Motorcycle accident in Pakistan

Although orthopedic injuries occur most frequently in motorcycle trauma, polytrauma necessitating multi-disciplinary management and complicating hospital stay is also common. Understanding patterns of injuries and management in motorcycle trauma will enable trauma teams in a developing country like Pakistan to devise evidence-based management protocols, especially for cases of polytrauma ¹⁾.

Hasan et al. conducted a Cross-sectional study of medical records of patients with motorcycle-related injuries in 2015, at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. They reviewed the patient demographic and medical data, helmet use, the Glasgow coma score, the spectrum of injuries, length of stay, specific injury diagnosis, and final disposition of patients. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). They identified 450 motorcycle crash injuries. Ninety percent of these victims were males, and 81% were driving at the time of the crash. More than 50% of crashes involved patients age under 29 years, and most crashes (35%) involved patients in the third decade of life. They observed that 6.8% of accidents involved patients younger than 10 years of age. For all the motorcycle-related injuries, 45% occurred during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Helmets were worn by only 7% of patients. The most common types of collisions were motorcycle versus car followed by lone motorcycle fall. Of the injuries sustained, the cumulative frequency of orthopedic injuries was the highest (63%), of which 34% were lower limb injuries and 29% were upper limb injuries. The second highest frequency of injuries were head injury (46%). They also found that 85% motorcycle injury victims sustained fractures. The frequency of motorcycle-related injuries was high among young adults, and closed fractures of the lower limbs were the most common orthopedic injuries related to motorcycle crashes. Use of helmets among motorcyclists needs to be reinforced to prevent head injuries. They suggest motorcyclists to use protective clothes and motorcycle sidebars to prevent fractures of the lower limb. Further research is needed to determine the type of fractures, type of head injuries, surgical interventions required, and morbidity and mortality in motorcycle-related injuries and whether designing separate lanes for motorcycles will reduce the burden of these injuries on the healthcare system ²⁾.