Introduction:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is defined as an alteration in brain function caused by an external force. The most common causes of TBI are falls and traffic accidents, the latter being the most common in low-income countries.

Methodology:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in patients with a diagnosis of intracranial trauma in the emergency department of the Teodoro Maldonado Carbo Hospital from January 2017 to December 2020 with the aim of analyzing its causes, clinical and radiological characteristics.

Results:

324 patients were analyzed within the study, evidencing that the most common cause of TBI was traffic accident followed by falls. TBI is more common in men with a mean age of 40 years. Using Pearson's chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests, a statistically significant association was found between cause with age and length of hospital stay (p<0.001). However, there were no significant associations between the specific cause of TBI with patient clinical variables or mortality (p>0.05).

Conclusion:

The most prevalent cause of intracranial trauma was traffic accident. There is an association between the cause of TBI and length of hospital stay.