[The continuing medical education in the management of trauma (corrected)]. / Percorsi educazionali nella chirurgia dei trauma [corrected]

BACKGROUND: The continuous medical education constitutes a great institutional project for the improvement of the relief quality in which he is affirming a variety of formative methodologies. Particularly must be uses specific systems for the adult education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The project that is introduced it concerns a post-university formative run on the trauma with courses of target multidisciplinare or specialistic that answers to the need of specific knowledges on the whole run of clinical continuity of the patient. 236 students have currently participated, in non systematic way, developing interactive courses with a 40% of the hours devoted to the practical activity. RESULTS: The initial results of this activity show the validity of the model to increase his/her own abilities and to answer to the professional needs. CONCLUSIONS: The formative application appears directed to the development of coherent and systematic trials "problem directed" with strong involvement of the participants in practical activity and clinical experiences comparison.

[The education of the trauma surgeon: the "trauma surgery course" as advanced didactic tool]. / Modelli educazionali in chirurgia del trauma: il "Corso Teorico-Pratico di Chirurgia del Politrauma" come proposta di didattica avanzata.

BACKGROUND: The consequences of low incidence of penetrating injuries in Europe and of the increasing in nonoperative management of blunt trauma are a decrease in surgeons' confidence for managing traumatic injuries. The Corso Teorico Pratico di Chirurgia del Politrauma was developed as model for teaching operative trauma techniques. The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the course and compare it with other similar courses. METHOD: The Corso Teorico Pratico di Chirurgia del Politrauma is a two day course and consists of lecture on trauma topics and porcine operative experience. Data on the first 124 participants were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: One hundred twenty general surgeons and 2 pediatric surgeons had participated at the course. All the participants judged the course an efficient model to improve knowledge on surgical treatment of trauma. CONCLUSION: A two days course, focused on trauma, with didactic lectures and operative life-like situations, can be a model for simulated education and useful to improve surgeons' confidence in trauma patients.

Comparison of quality control for trauma management between Western and Eastern European trauma center.

BACKGROUND: Quality control of trauma care is essential to define the effectiveness of trauma center and trauma system. To identify the troublesome issues of the system is the first step for validation of the focused customized solutions. This is a comparative study of two level I trauma centers in Italy and Romania and it has been designed to give an overview of the entire trauma care program adopted in these two countries. This study was aimed to use the results as the basis for recommending and planning changes in the two trauma systems for a better trauma care. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed a total of 182 major trauma patients treated in the two hospitals included in the study, between January and June 2002. Every case was analyzed according to the recommended minimal audit filters for trauma quality assurance by The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACSCOT). RESULTS: Satisfactory yields have been reached in both centers for the management of head and abdominal trauma, airway management, Emergency Department length of stay and early diagnosis and treatment. The main significant differences between the two centers were in the patients' transfers, the leadership of trauma team and the patients' outcome. The main concerns have been in the surgical treatment of fractures, the outcome and the lacking of documentation. CONCLUSION: The analyzed hospitals are classified as Level I trauma center and are within the group of the highest quality level centers in their own countries. Nevertheless, both of them experience major lacks and for few audit filters do not reach the mmum standard requirements of ACS Audit Filters. The differences between the western and the eastern European center were slight. The parameters not reaching the minimum requirements are probably occurring even more often in suburban settings.

Initial evaluation of the "Trauma surgery course".

BACKGROUND: The consequence of the low rate of penetrating injuries in Europe and the increase in non-operative management of blunt trauma is a decrease in surgeons' confidence in managing traumatic injuries has led to the need for new didactic tools. The aim of this retrospective study was to present the Corso di Chirurgia del Politrauma (Trauma Surgery Course), developed as a model for teaching operative trauma techniques, and assess its efficacy. METHOD: the two-day course consisted of theoretical lectures and practical experience on large-sized swine. Data of the first 126 participants were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: All of the 126 general surgeons who had participated in the course judged it to be an efficient model to improve knowledge about the surgical treatment of trauma. CONCLUSION: A two-day course, focusing on trauma surgery, with lectures and life-like operation situations, represents a model for simulated training and can be useful to improve surgeons' confidence in managing trauma patients. Cooperation between organizers of similar initiatives would be beneficial and could lead to standardizing and improving such courses.