Motorcycle Crash Casualties and Their In-hospital Management

Abstract

Recent studies conducted at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, have identified a number of short comings in the delivery of in hospital care and follow up, particularly for motorcyclists. A retrospective study (Fig. 1) examined the pattern of fractures and hospital service utilization by 187 road crash casualties with fractures, over an 18 month period in 2005/06. This study found that motorcyclists, who represented 23% of the cohort, tended to leave hospital earlier, cost less and receive fewer services than other road users. Their pattern of fractures show frequent chest and upper limb fractures as well the expected high frequency of lower limb fractures.