Notification of urban violence in health through international classification of diseases

Abstract

The objective of this exploratory descriptive study with quantitative approach was to identify, according to the International Classification Diseases (ICD), the code number of injuries of thoracic-abdominal area of patients that underwent surgery, due to urban violence by firearm injuries (FI), or by cutting weapon (PCW). Data was collected at two emergency public hospitals of Rio de Janeiro/RJ, using medical records and hospital registers. The results showed that 73 of 85 collected medical records are written secondary ICD, which means act of violence, that is, 14.1% of medical records did not divulge as external causes, in 63% violence had as scenery streets and roads, and 35.6% without specification of place. In relation to kind of injury, we found that in 82 medical records the principal code of ICD was described, even though two codes showed that are not associated with violence. We concluded that the kind of register does not reproduce the present situation to study violence, as it should not be integrated in the ICD under the denomination “external causes”, in order to give the correct visibility to this problem, which produces victims who require differentiated care by health professionals.