Epidemiology of Patients Treated at the Emergency Department of a Médecins Sans Frontières Field Hospital During the Mosul Offensive: Iraq, 2017

BACKGROUND Armed conflicts constitute a significant public health problem, and the advent of asymmetric warfare tactics creates unique and new challenges to health care organizations providing trauma care in conflicts. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to analyze the epidemiology of presentations to a civilian field hospital deployed close to an ongoing conflict. METHODS During the 2016-2017 Mosul offensive, the humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres deployed a field hospital 30 km south of Mosul. This study is a retrospective analysis of routinely collected patient data of all presentations to the emergency department (ED) during its period of operation between February 23 and July 18, 2017. Data were collected in Microsoft Excel by health care workers and analyzed in JMP, version 13. Chi-square test was used to compare proportions. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS The analysis included 3946 presentations. Most were due to conflict-related injuries, including explosives (40.4%) and firearms (12.9%), which presented in consecutive waves over time. Approximately one-third of presentations (32.3%) were due to medical issues, which outweighed conflict-related presentations toward the latter half of the operational period. Explosives caused most of the mass casualty events. A total of 20 patients (0.5%) died in the ED. CONCLUSIONS The study demonstrated a cyclical burden of conflict-related injuries and extensive medical needs, which increased over time. Among conflict-related injuries, explosive etiology predominated and was likely to result in mass casualty incidents. The low mortality might be due to critical but potentially salvageable patients not reaching the hospital in time, owing to the adverse context.