Association of injury pattern and entrapment location inside damaged buildings in the 2016 Taiwan earthquake

Shih Tien Pan, Ya Yun Cheng, Chen Long Wu, Ray Hsienho Chang, Chihsin Chiu, Ning Ping Foo, Pao Tien Chen, Tai Yuan Wang, Li Hsing Chen, Chien Jung Chen, Roger Ong, Chang Chih Tsai, Chien Chin Hsu, Li Wei Hsieh, Chih Hsien Chi, Chih Hao Lin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)


Background/Purpose: To explore the association of patient injury patterns and entrapped locations inside damaged buildings in the 2016 Taiwan earthquake. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using the Tainan incident registry system. Residents inside nine conjunctive, 16-story (49.3 m in height) reinforced concrete buildings were categorized as non-injured, injured, and dead. Residents were classified into different groups according to their entrapped locations in height and the severity of building damage. The field triage acuity and trauma severity among groups were compared. Statistical significance was set at the level of 0.05. Results: There were 309 enrollees with 76 (24.6%) non-injured, 118 (38.2%) injured, and 115 (37.2%) dead. Residents either in the high floors (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.5–5.8, p = 0.003) or in the collapsed buildings (OR = 18.2, 95% CI: 7.6–43.6, p < 0.001) were more likely to be dead. Injured patients who were located in the high floors were more likely to have severe field triage acuities (adjusted OR = 14.7, 95% CI: 1.8–118.0, p = 0.012); intracranial hemorrhage (12.5%), intrathoracic injury (18.8%), or intra-abdominal damage (12.5%) (All p < 0.05); the need for emergency surgical intervention (31.3%, p = 0.035); and major trauma (18.8%, p = 0.001). Residents in the collapsed buildings were more likely to have a crush injury (80.0%, p < 0.001) or crush syndrome (80.0%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: People entrapped at different heights of floors or in differently damaged buildings could have a distinct pattern of injury. Our findings may facilitate strategic approaches of patients entrapped in damaged buildings and may contribute to future training for field searches and rescues after earthquakes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)311-323
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of the Formosan Medical Association
Issue number1P2
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Jan

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Medicine(all)

Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Association of injury pattern and entrapment location inside damaged buildings in the 2016 Taiwan earthquake'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this