Neurosurgical Injuries Caused by the 2011 Van Earthquake: The Experience at the Van Regional Training and Research Hospital

BackgroundOn October 23, 2011, a devastating earthquake, magnitude 7.2 on the Richter Scale, jolted the province of Van in the east of Turkey and led to hundreds of casualties. Objectives: In this study, we aimed to present our clinical experience in the management of patients with cranial and spinal injuries who were admitted to the Van Regional Training and Research Hospital.MethodsThe retrospective study included 44 (77.2%) patients who were referred to the neurosurgery department after being diagnosed with spinal and cranial injuries due to earthquake at the emergency department between October 23 and 27, 2011.ResultsThe patients comprised 32 male (72.7%) and 12 (27.3%) female patients with a mean age of 23.5 years. The injuries included scalp injury (n = 16), burst fracture (n=7), compression fracture (n=3), epidural hematoma (n=9), subdural hematoma (n=3), contusion (n=1), traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (n=2), depressed skull fracture (n=3), linear fracture (n=9), cervical fracture (n=2), and pneumocephalus (n=1). Most of the patients (90.9%) had isolated injuries and the others (9.1%) presented with combined cranial and spinal injuries. At discharge, the 3 patients with spinal fractures were paraplegic, and of the 2 patients who were operatively treated due to subdural hematoma, 1 was hemiparesic and the other was hemiplegic. No mortality occurred in our patients.ConclusionsThe results of this study demonstrated that, in the aftermath of a natural disaster, conducting correct triage procedures and performing a prompt intervention with appropriate and qualified equipment play key roles in reducing morbidity and mortality.