Patterns of assault : experience from an urban hospital-based study in a developing country

Abstract EN

Background : Most studies on assault-related injuries represent the burden of trauma due to firearms in the burden of trauma due to firearms in the developed world.

Nevertheless the pattern of violence leading to injuries may differ in developing countries due to cultural and socioeconomic factors or availability of weapons.

Our study aims to determine this hypothetical difference. Methods : An inpatient dataset consisting of 8450 records based on a multi-center urban trauma study in Tehran was used.

Exclusion of accidental and suicidal injuries resulted in a subset comprised of assault victims.

Demographic characteristics of cases, mechanism, place and anatomical distribution of injuries were demonstrated. Results : Of 475 assault victims, 88.5 % were male and the mean age was 28.87 years.

Violence against men had often occurred in the streets (53.7 %), while women were mostly victims of assault at home (78.2 %).

In contrast to the predominance of blunt trauma in women (72.7 %), men frequently suffered from penetrating trauma (57.8).

Injuries to upper extremities were the main reason for trauma admission in 26.5 % of cases followed by head injuries in 25.9 %.

The commonest mechanism of assault was trauma by sharp objects (51.1 %), mostly by knife (42.6 % of all).

Firearms were a very rare agent of assault (4 %).

Conclusion : It seems that strict laws for wearing knives in public, may greatly reduce the incidence of assault-related injuries, especially in the developing world.