Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects 10 million people annually. Clinical epidemiology can inform prevention initiatives to curb this burden. Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) is a referral hospital for 11million people with neurosurgical capacity located in Moshi, Tanzania.

Methods: Secondary analysis of a prospective observational TBI Acute Care Registry at the KCMC Casualty Department (CD) included all patients presenting between May 5 and July 27th, 2013. Means with standard deviations (SD), Fisher’s exact or Chi-squared with a binomial logistic regression reporting Odds Ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was calculated using Stata IC (College Station, TX).

Results: 171 total patients were enrolled in the TBI Registry. The mean age was 32.1 years (range 1–99, SD 16.6), with 71% between 15 and 45years of age. 82% were male and 28% cases involved alcohol. Causes of TBI were road traffic injuries (RTI) (74%), assaults (13%) or falls (8%). 52% of RTI’s involved motorcycle users. The mean Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) was 12.6 (range 3-15, SD 4.04) with 19% of patients having severe TBI (GCS of <9). The overall mortality rate was 13% for all CD patients, 14% for admitted patients and 80% for patients admitted to the ICU. Death was associated with hypoxia (OR 16.0 (95% CI 5.4, 47.5), hypotension (OR 7.3 (95% CI 1.4, 38.4) and low GCS (GCS <9, OR 29.7 (95% CI 9.6, 92.0). Severe TBI had a 53% mortality rate, while moderate and mild TBI 12% and 3% fatality rates respectively. Of severe TBI patients, 63.6% suffered disability from their injury compared to 27% of moderate and 3% of mild TBI.

Conclusion: Most TBI patients were young males involved in road traffic collisions, predominantly involving motorcycles. Over a quarter of them involve alcohol. Our data support that TBI causes significant death and disability.