A Decade of Damage Control Resuscitation: New Transfusion Practice, New Survivors, New Directions.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify the effects of recent innovations in trauma major hemorrhage management on outcome and transfusion practice, and to determine the contemporary timings and patterns of death. BACKGROUND: The last 10 years have seen a research-led change in hemorrhage management to damage control resuscitation (DCR), focused on the prevention and treatment of trauma-induced coagulopathy. METHODS: A 10-year retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data of trauma patients who activated the Major Trauma Centre's major hemorrhage protocol (MHP) and received at least 1 unit of red blood cell transfusions (RBC). RESULTS: A total of 1169 trauma patients activated the MHP and received at least 1 unit of RBC, with similar injury and admission physiology characteristics over the decade. Overall mortality declined from 45% in 2008 to 27% in 2017, whereas median RBC transfusion rates dropped from 12 to 4 units (massive transfusion rates from 68% to 24%). The proportion of deaths within 24 hours halved (33%-16%), principally with a fall in mortality between 3 and 24 hours (30%-6%). Survivors are now more likely to be discharged to their own home (57%-73%). Exsanguination is still the principal cause of early deaths, and the mortality associated with massive transfusion remains high (48%). Late deaths are now split between those due to traumatic brain injury (52%) and multiple organ dysfunction (45%). CONCLUSIONS: There have been remarkable reductions in mortality after major trauma hemorrhage in recent years. Mortality rates continue to be high and there remain important opportunities for further improvements in these patients.

The Impact of a Pan-regional Inclusive Trauma System on Quality of Care.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of the implementation of an inclusive pan-regional trauma system on quality of care. BACKGROUND: Inclusive trauma systems ensure access to quality injury care for a designated population. The 2007 National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) found quality deficits for 60% of severely injured patients. In 2010, London implemented an inclusive trauma system. This represented an opportunity to evaluate the impact of a pan-regional trauma system on quality of care. METHODS: Evaluation of the London Trauma System (ELoTS) utilized the NCEPOD study core methodology. Severely injured patients were identified prospectively over a 3-month period. Data were collected from prehospital care to 72 h following admission or death. Quality, processes of care, and outcome were assessed by expert review using NCEPOD criteria. RESULTS: Three hundred and twenty one severely injured patients were included of which 84% were taken directly to a major trauma center, in contrast to 16% in NCEPOD. Overall quality improved with the proportion of patients receiving "good overall care" increasing significantly [NCEPOD: 48% vs ALL-ELoTS: 69%, RR 1.3 (1.2 to 1.4), P < 0.01], primarily through improvements in organizational processes rather than clinical care. Improved quality was associated with increased early survival, with the greatest benefit for critically injured patients [NCEPOD: 31% vs All-ELoTS 11%, RR 0.37 (0.33 to 0.99), P = 0.04]. CONCLUSIONS: Inclusive trauma systems deliver quality and process improvements, primarily through organizational change. Most improvements were seen in major trauma centers; however, systems implementation did not automatically lead to a reduction in clinical deficits in care.

Major trauma and urban cyclists: physiological status and injury profile.

INTRODUCTION: Pedal cycling in cities has the potential to deliver significant health and economic benefits for individuals and society. Safety is the main concern for potential cyclists although the statistical risk of death is low. Little is known about the severity of injuries sustained by city cyclists and their outcome. AIM: The aim of this study was to characterise the physiological status and injury profile of cyclists admitted to our urban major trauma centre (MTC). METHODS: Database analysis of cyclist casualties between 2004 and 2009. The physiological parameters examined were admission systolic blood pressure (SBP), admission base deficit and prehospital Glasgow Coma Scale. RESULTS: 265 cyclists required full trauma-team activation. 82% were injured during a collision with a motorised vehicle. The majority (73%) had collided with a car or a heavy goods vehicle (HGV). These casualties formed the cohort for further analysis. Cyclists who collided with an HGV were more severely injured and had a higher mortality rate. Low SBP and high base deficit indicate that haemorrhagic shock is a key feature of HGV casualties. CONCLUSION: Collision with any vehicle can result in death or serious injury to a cyclist. Injury patterns vary with the type of vehicle involved. HGVs were associated with severe injuries and death as a result of uncontrollable haemorrhage. Awareness of this injury profile may aid prehospital management and expedite transfer to MTC care. Rapid haemorrhage control may salvage some, but not all, of these casualties. The need for continued collision prevention strategies and long-term outcome data collection in trauma patients is highlighted.

Temporal and geographic patterns of stab injuries in young people: a retrospective cohort study from a UK major trauma centre.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the epidemiology of assaults resulting in stab injuries among young people. We hypothesised that there are specific patterns and risk factors for injury in different age groups. DESIGN: Eleven-year retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Urban major trauma centre in the UK. PARTICIPANTS: 1824 patients under the age of 25 years presenting to hospital after a stab injury resulting from assault. OUTCOMES: Incident timings and locations were obtained from ambulance service records and triangulated with prospectively collected demographic and injury characteristics recorded in our hospital trauma registry. We used geospatial mapping of individual incidents to investigate the relationships between demographic characteristics and incident timing and location. RESULTS: The majority of stabbings occurred in males from deprived communities, with a sharp increase in incidence between the ages of 14 and 18 years. With increasing age, injuries occurred progressively later in the day (r2=0.66, p<0.01) and were less frequent within 5 km of home (r2=0.59, p<0.01). Among children (age <16), a significant peak in injuries occurred between 16:00 and 18:00 hours, accounting for 22% (38/172) of injuries in this group compared with 11% (182/1652) of injuries in young adults. In children, stabbings occurred earlier on school days (hours from 08:00: 11.1 vs non-school day 13.7, p<0.01) and a greater proportion were within 5 km of home (90% vs non-school day 74%, p=0.02). Mapping individual incidents demonstrated that the spike in frequency in the late afternoon and early evening was attributable to incidents occurring on school days and close to home. CONCLUSIONS: Age, gender and deprivation status are potent influences on the risk of violent injury in young people. Stab injuries occur in characteristic temporal and geographical patterns according to age group, with the immediate after-school period associated with a spike in incident frequency in children. This represents an opportunity for targeted prevention strategies in this population.

Acute Kidney Injury in Trauma Patients Admitted to Critical Care: Development and Validation of a Diagnostic Prediction Model.

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) complicating major trauma is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Traumatic AKI has specific risk factors and predictable time-course facilitating diagnostic modelling. In a single centre, retrospective observational study we developed risk prediction models for AKI after trauma based on data around intensive care admission. Models predicting AKI were developed using data from 830 patients, using data reduction followed by logistic regression, and were independently validated in a further 564 patients. AKI occurred in 163/830 (19.6%) with 42 (5.1%) receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT). First serum creatinine and phosphate, units of blood transfused in first 24 h, age and Charlson score discriminated need for RRT and AKI early after trauma. For RRT c-statistics were good to excellent: development: 0.92 (0.88-0.96), validation: 0.91 (0.86-0.97). Modelling AKI stage 2-3, c-statistics were also good, development: 0.81 (0.75-0.88) and validation: 0.83 (0.74-0.92). The model predicting AKI stage 1-3 performed moderately, development: c-statistic 0.77 (0.72-0.81), validation: 0.70 (0.64-0.77). Despite good discrimination of need for RRT, positive predictive values (PPV) at the optimal cut-off were only 23.0% (13.7-42.7) in development. However, PPV for the alternative endpoint of RRT and/or death improved to 41.2% (34.8-48.1) highlighting death as a clinically relevant endpoint to RRT.

Survival prediction algorithms miss significant opportunities for improvement if used for case selection in trauma quality improvement programs.

BACKGROUND: Quality improvement (QI) programs have shown to reduce preventable mortality in trauma care. Detailed review of all trauma deaths is a time and resource consuming process and calculated probability of survival (Ps) has been proposed as audit filter. Review is limited on deaths that were 'expected to survive'. However no Ps-based algorithm has been validated and no study has examined elements of preventability associated with deaths classified as 'expected'. The objective of this study was to examine whether trauma performance review can be streamlined using existing mortality prediction tools without missing important areas for improvement. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of all trauma deaths reviewed by our trauma QI program. Deaths were classified into non-preventable, possibly preventable, probably preventable or preventable. Opportunities for improvement (OPIs) involve failure in the process of care and were classified into clinical and system deviations from standards of care. TRISS and PS were used for calculation of probability of survival. Peer-review charts were reviewed by a single investigator. RESULTS: Over 8 years, 626 patients were included. One third showed elements of preventability and 4% were preventable. Preventability occurred across the entire range of the calculated Ps band. Limiting review to unexpected deaths would have missed over 50% of all preventability issues and a third of preventable deaths. 37% of patients showed opportunities for improvement (OPIs). Neither TRISS nor PS allowed for reliable identification of OPIs and limiting peer-review to patients with unexpected deaths would have missed close to 60% of all issues in care. CONCLUSIONS: TRISS and PS fail to identify a significant proportion of avoidable deaths and miss important opportunities for process and system improvement. Based on this, all trauma deaths should be subjected to expert panel review in order to aim at a maximal output of performance improvement programs.

Measuring acute rehabilitation needs in trauma: preliminary evaluation of the Rehabilitation Complexity Scale.

BACKGROUND: Injury severity, disability and care dependency are frequently used as surrogate measures for rehabilitation requirements following trauma. The true rehabilitation needs of patients may be different but there are no validated tools for the measurement of rehabilitation complexity in acute trauma care. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential utility of the Rehabilitation Complexity Scale (RCS) version 2 in measuring acute rehabilitation needs in trauma patients. METHODS: A prospective observation study of 103 patients with traumatic injuries in a Major Trauma Centre. Rehabilitation complexity was measured using the RCS and disability was measured using the Barthel Index. Demographic information and injury characteristics were obtained from the trauma database. RESULTS: The RCS was closely correlated with injury severity (r=0.69, p<0.001) and the Barthel Index (r=0.91, p<0.001). However the Barthel was poor at discriminating between patients rehabilitation needs, especially for patients with higher injury severities. Of 58 patients classified as 'very dependent' by the Barthel, 21 (36%) had low or moderate rehabilitation complexity. The RCS correlated with acute hospital length of stay (r=0.64, p=<0.001) and patients with a low RCS were more likely to be discharged home. The Barthel which had a flooring effect (56% of patients classified as very dependent were discharged home) and lacked discrimination despite close statistical correlation. CONCLUSION: The RCS outperformed the ISS and the Barthel in its ability to identify rehabilitation requirements in relation to injury severity, rehabilitation complexity, length of stay and discharge destination. The RCS is potentially a feasible and useful tool for the assessment of rehabilitation complexity in acute trauma care by providing specific measurement of patients' rehabilitation requirements. A larger longitudinal study is needed to evaluate the RCS in the assessment of patient need, service provision and trauma system performance.