Analyses of causes and trends of traumatic brain injuries help to define public health policy priorities. There are not much TBI registries, thus making documentation of injuries inadequate and accessing these data problematic. This study is aimed at identifying the characteristics of TBI and determining the efficiency of documentation of patients' records in a tertiary hospital.

Based on WHO guidelines “Standards for Surveillance of Neurotrauma” we designed a proforma to collect data on traumatic brain injuries. A prospective data collection was done from January to June 2010. Data was collected on a paper form and then entered into the self-developed TBI registry database. Descriptive analysis was performed.

Data for a total 414 patients were collected. Mean age was 33.00 years (SD ± 16.725, range 1–85 years), and 81% male. Most of the accidents took place on highways (57.2%), commonest being the road traffic accidents (55.1%), brought by relatives (74%). The mean duration for hospital stay was 5.42 days (SD ± 8.312 days, range 1-79 days). 10% patients required resuscitation at the time of admission. Details of Glasgow coma scale were available; details regarding CT scan findings were available for 300 patients. Good recovery was seen in 68.4% and the mortality was in 7.2%. Further details on vital parameters and investigations included in the study were also collected.

TBI related research in many developing countries is in the developmental stages with relatively few published data. Although early analysis of a TBI data can lead to useful information, there is further need for the development of a user-friendly secure web-based database system to continuously maintain and analyze the registry.