Trauma team conformation in a war-influenced middle-income country in South America: is it possible?

Trauma teams (TTs) improve outcomes in trauma patients. A multidisciplinary TT was conformed in September 2015 in a tertiary level I trauma university hospital in southwestern Colombia, a middle-income war-influenced country.

To evaluate the impact of a TT in admission-tomography and admission-surgery times as well as mortality in a tertiary center university hospital in a middle-income country war-influenced country.

Retrospective analytical study. Patients older than 17 years admitted to the emergency room 15 months prior and 15 months after the TT implementation were included. Patients prior to the TT implementation were taken as controls. No exclusion criteria. Four hundred sixty-four patients were included, 220 before the TT implementation (BTT) and 244 after (ATT). Demographic data, trauma characteristics, admission-tomography, and admission-surgery time interval as well as mortality were recorded. Requirement of CT scan or surgery was based on physician decision. The analysis was made on Stata 15.1®. Categorical variables were described as quantities and proportions, and continuous variables as mean and standard deviation or median and interquartile range (IQR). Categorical variables were compared using χ² or Fisher's test and continuous variables using Student's T test or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney. A multiple logistic regression model was created to evaluate the impact of being treated in the ATT group on mortality, adjusted by age, trauma severity, and physiological response upon admission.

The admission-tomography time interval was 56 min (IQR 39-100) in the BTT group and 40 min (IQR 24-76) in the ATT group, p < 0.001. The admission-surgery time interval was 116 min (IQR 63-214) in the BTT group and 52 min (IQR 24-76) in the ATT group, p < 0.001. Mortality in the BTT group was 18.1% and 13.1% in the ATT group. Adjusted OR was 0.406 (0.215-0.789) p = 0.006 CONCLUSIONS: A trauma team conformation in a war-influenced middle-income country is feasible and reduces mortality as well as admission-surgery and admission-tomography time intervals in trauma patients.