Evaluation of Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital in İstanbul After the Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes and Organisation of Emergency Health Services During the Disasters

Objective: Because of the two earthquakes that occurred in Kahramanmaraş in Türkiye on February 6th, 2023, 50,783 people lost their lives and 115,353 people were injured. In this study, cases presenting to our center, which is approximately 1000 km away from the earthquake zone, were examined.
Material and Methods: In our study, the data of earthquake-affected patients aged 18 and over who presented to our hospital between 06.02.2023 and 06.03.2023 were retrospectively evaluated and statistically analysed.
Results: Of the 521 patients, 288 were women, and the mean age was 49.91 years. It was observed that cases presenting to the hospital because of trauma presented to the hospital at an earlier stage. The three most common reasons for presentation to the emergency department for non-traumatic reasons were upper and lower respiratory tract infections (34.4%), myalgia (12%), and anxiety (5.6%).
Conclusion: Although trauma-related patient presentations are predominant after disasters, it should not be forgotten that internal and psychiatric diseases may be among the reasons for presentation to the hospital. Distance from the earthquake zone affects the reasons for admission and severity of injuries.

Keywords: Earthquake, disaster, disaster management, emergency medicine, disaster medicine