Abstract
External causes are ranked as the third most common cause of death in Kazakhstan. At the same time, Kazakhstan has the highest mortality from traffic injuries in the world warranting development of preventive programs based on the main principles of evidence-based medicine. Given considerable heterogeneity between different regions of Kazakhstan, preventive programs should be based on the regional evidence. In this descriptive study we present a structure of injuries using the data on all injuries hospitalized to Shymkent Municipal Emergency Care Hospital from 1 January 2012 through 31 December 2014. Type of trauma, mechanism and circumstances as well as age, gender, time and place of when injury took place were registered. We present the main typical traumas that require hospitalizations, but also describe limitations of the existing medical documentation for development of preventive programs. We suggest establishment of a municipal injury registry which can have comparable with international registries data on circumstances of injuries, which can be used in other regions of Kazakhstan.