Pre-hospital trauma care: A comparison of two healthcare systems

The management of trauma patients differs depending upon the healthcare system available.

To compare the pre-hospital management and outcome of polytrauma patients between two countries with differing approaches to pre-hospital management.

The Scottish trauma and audit group (STAG) and the German trauma registry (GTR) databases were used to compare the management and outcome of trauma patients in Scotland and Germany. Severely injured patients (injury severity score (ISS) > 16) were analyzed for a 3 year period (2000 to 2002). Patient demographics, pre-hospital interventions, ISS, revised trauma score (RTS), time from scene of injury to arrival to the emergency department (ED), 120 day mortality and standardized mortality ratios using TRISS methodology were compared.

There were 227 patients identified from the STAG registry and 6878 patients from the GTR registry. There was a significant difference in ISS (24.9 vs. 29.8, P = 0.001, respectively). No significant difference was observed for the RTS (P = 0.2). There was a significantly higher rate of pre-hospital interventions in the German group (P < 0.001). The mean time from an injury to arrival to the ED (73 vs. 247 minutes, P = 0.001) was longer for the Scottish patients. There was no difference for an unadjusted mortality rate between the groups, but the standardized mortality ratio was significantly greater for the Scottish population (3.8 vs. 2.2, P = 0.036).

Despite variation in pre-hospital transfer times and interventions, no significant difference was demonstrated in RTS upon arrival, or for the unadjusted mortality rates.