Factors predicting surgery after horse related injuries, a rural hospital’s experience

Dr Saksham Gupta, Dr David Buckley

Abstract

Horses are important sources of recreation, companionship and serve as working animals for rural Australians. A 12-month retrospective analysis was performed for all horse-injured patients who presented to Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. The majority of patients were female (67%) and adult (79%). Only 60% wore a helmet, concerning as 20% of injuries involved the head and neck. Seventy-eight percent were injured whilst riding. A logistical regression analysis was performed to examine the probability of a patient requiring surgery which found two variables having significant associations: non-riders were 3.6 times more likely to require surgery (95% CI 1.5-8.3) along with males being 2.7 times more likely (95% CI 1.3-6.0). The most common region injured was the limbs/extremities, injuries which

also required the most surgical procedures, usually orthopaedic in nature. The injury severity of the cohort was low with a mean ISS of 3.4, 2.4% ICU admission rate and one mortality.