Journal of the Korean Society of Traumatology  2009;22(2):172-178

Effect of the Emergency Trauma Team's Management on the Treatment of Patients with Multiple Severe Trauma.

Seong Hwa LEE 1 ; Suck Joo CHO ; Seok Ran YEOM ; Ji Ho RYU ; Jin Woo JUNG ; Sang Kyun HAN ; Yong In KIM ; Maeng Real PARK ; Young Dae KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

Multiple severe trauma; Emergency trauma team; Effect

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

PURPOSE: We performed this study to determine how the emergency trauma team affects the treatment of patients with multiple severe trauma and to discuss the effect and the direction of the emergency trauma team's management. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 518 patients who visited our emergency department with severe trauma from August 2006 to July 2008. We divided the severe trauma patients into 2 groups : patients before and after trauma team management (Group 1 and Group 2). Then, we compared demographic characteristics, mechanisms of injury, and treatment outcomes (lengths of stay in the ED, admission ratio, and in-hospital mortality) between the 2 groups. In the same way, patients with multiple severe trauma were divided into 2 groups, that are patients before and after trauma team management (Group 3 and Group 4) and analyzed. RESULTS: There was no significant difference, except mean age, between groups 1 and 2. In group 4 patients, compared to group 3 patients, the lengths of stay in the ED were lower (p value < 0.001), and the admission ratio were higher (p value = 0.017), but there was no significant difference in the in-hospital mortality between the groups 3 and 4. CONCLUSION: When patients with multiple severe trauma visit the ED, the emergency trauma team's management can decrease the lengths of stay in the ED and increase the admission ratio, but does not produce a decrease in the in-hospital mortality rate. Further investigations of emergency trauma team management are needed to improve treatment outcomes for patients with multiple severe trauma.