A study of stab wounds in east london district general hospital

Author: 
Nasser Mohammed Amer and Mohammed N Amer

Stabbing in East London has increased significantly over the past decade. We have reported 325 stabbings presented to to a district general hospital in East London over 18 months period. This is equivalent to 90 stabbings per 100,000 per year. They were mainly males and young (median age 22). We analysed three months period of 18 months and among the victims we found no difference between white or black ethnic origin and most of the stabbing took place in a public place. The knife was the commonest weapon used and the upper limb was the commonest site injured, followed by the lower limb, then the chest. Only one patient had laparotomy, six had chest drains, and six were explored under general anaesthesia. Most of the patients were attacked by unknown assailant, and 33% were attacked by more than one assailant. Most of the incidences occurred over the weekend, between 6 pm and midnight. We also compared our study with similar study done in the same Hospital ten years ago, and we showed increase in the incidence from 44 per 100,000 to 90 per 100,000 per year. We also looked at the involvement of alcohol, drugs and theft, and we also compared our results with other published results from Homerton, Limerick, Glasgow and Sweden.

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DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2021.4877.24575
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