Surgical Volumes in a Regional Trauma Center: Is It Enough?

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study evaluated the surgical volumes and types of specific surgical procedures in a single trauma center for 3 consecutive years. @*Methods@#From January 2014 to December 2016 there were 9,530 injury cases in the trauma registry that were reviewed. @*Results@#There were 1,502 patients (15.8%) with an injury severity score over 15, of which 426 (28.4%) underwent an emergency operation or had an interventional radiology procedure. There were 186 craniotomies, 87 laparotomies, and 74 interventional radiology procedures performed. @*Conclusion@#The number of emergency operations by each dedicated trauma surgeon was very low therefore implementation of an acute-care surgery model is appropriate to consider together with changes to the training program for trauma surgeons.