The epidemiology of traumatic brain injury in civilian inpatients of Chinese Military Hospitals, 2001-2007

Primary objective: To investigate the epidemiology of TBI in Chinese inpatients. Research design: Civilian inpatients of Chinese military hospitals diagnosed with TBI between 2001-2007 were identified using ICD-9-CM codes. Methods and procedures: Demographic characteristics, admission time, injury cause, injury severity, length of stay and outcomes were compared between ICD-9-CM diagnosis groups. Main outcomes and results: In total, 203 553 civilian patients with TBI (74.86% male, 25.14% female) were identified from >200 Chinese military hospitals. TBI diagnoses increased by a mean of 4.67% each year. Admission peaked during the third quarter of the year and October annually. The leading causes of TBI were motor vehicle-traffic (51.41%), falls (21.49%) and assaults (15.77%). TBI was categorized by abbreviated injury scale score as mild in 36.64%, serious in 20.13%, severe in 26.81% and critical in 15.68% of inpatients. The mean length of stay was 17.8 +/- 24.1 days. Recovery rate was 93.06% and mortality was 4.14%. Conclusions: The epidemiological data may contribute to the development of effective, targeted strategies to prevent TBI.