Civilian war victims in Afghanistan: five-year report from the Kabul EMERGENCY NGO hospital.

BACKGROUND: Afghanistan has been plagued by war for more than 30 years, but little is known about the civilian cost of such a long-lasting conflict. In particular, the incidence of war injuries among civilians has largely been under-reported. EMERGENCY NGO's Surgical Centre for War Victims has been operating in Kabul since 2001, providing care free of charge to anyone injured in war. The primary aim of our study is to describe the population of patients admitted to our hospital in Kabul. METHODS: This is a 5-year retrospective analysis of all recorded hospital admissions at EMERGENCY NGO's hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021. RESULTS: During the study period, 16,053 patients were admitted. Of these, 85.7% were male and 17.5% were under 14 years old. The proportion of male patients increased progressively with the age ranges (from 63.4 to 89.0%). Bullet wounds were the most frequent kind of injury (55.6%), followed by shell, stab and mine wounds (32.2%, 8.3% and 3.9% respectively). Only 5.8% of patients arrived at our hospital within the "golden hour" following injury. No significant reduction in the hospitalization trend was observed over the study period. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 4.41%, which bore no correlation to the number of admissions. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides for the first time epidemiology of war-related injuries in a hospital located in a place of long-standing conflict.

Kabul airport suicide bombing attack: Mass casualty management at the EMERGENCY NGO Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Terrorist attacks with large numbers of civilian victims are not uncommon in war-torn countries, and present a unique challenge for health care facilities with limited resources. However, these events are largely underreported and little is known about how the mass casualty events (MCEs) are handled outside of a military setting. METHODS: This study is a retrospective analysis of the MCE which ensued the Kabul Airport suicide attack (August 26, 2021) at the Kabul EMERGENCY NGO Hospital (Afghanistan). RESULTS: Within 6 hours, 93 causalities presented at our hospital. Of them, 36 severe injured were admitted. Mean age was 30.8 years (SD, 10.1 years). The most common injury mechanism was shell fragments. The most common injury site was head (63%; 23/36), followed by limbs (55.5%; 20/36) and thoracoabdominal region (30.5%; 11/36). Combined injuries occurred in 38.9% of cases. Patients receiving surgery presented more combined injuries in comparison with patients receiving only medical treatment (47.1% vs. 31.6%). Thoracoabdomen (25.0% vs. 15.4%) and/or extremity injury (42.9% vs. 28.6%) were more prevalent in the surgical group. Thirty major surgical procedures were carried out on 17 patients in the 9 hours following the first arrival. The rate of intensive care unit/high dependency unit admission was 36.1% and the 30-day in-hospital mortality was 16.6% (6/36). All deaths were recorded in the first 24 hours, and none of them received surgery. CONCLUSION: A large number of wounded patients must be anticipated after suicide bombing attacks. The authors report the challenges faced and key aspects of their management of MCEs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic/Epidemiological; Level IV.