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Updated: Nov 21, 2025
Systems Analysis of the Neuroinflammatory and Hemodynamic Response to Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: May 27, 2022
Transport Time and Mortality in Critically Ill Patients with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury
Eric Sy1,2,3, Ofer Amram4,5, Heather J Baer3,6,7
1Department of Critical Care, Regina General Hospital, Regina, Canada.
Purpose:
Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Pre-hospital care and transportation time may impact their outcomes.
Methods:
Using the British Columbia Trauma Registry, we included 2,860 adult (≥18 years) patients with severe TBI (abbreviated injury scale head score ≥4), who were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in a centre with neurosurgical services from January 1, 2000 to March 31, 2013. We evaluated the impact of transportation time (time of injury to time of arrival at a neurosurgical trauma centre) on in-hospital mortality and discharge disposition, adjusting for age, sex, year of injury, injury severity score (ISS), revised trauma score at the scene, location of injury, socio-economic status and direct versus indirect transfer.
Results:
Patients had a median age of 43 years (interquartile range [IQR] 26-59) and 676 (23.6%) were female. They had a median ISS of 33 (IQR 26-43). Median transportation time was 80 minutes (IQR 40-315). ICU and hospital length of stay were 6 days (IQR 2-12) and 20 days (IQR 7-42), respectively. Six hundred and ninety-six (24.3%) patients died in hospital. After adjustment, there was no significant impact of transportation time on in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.95-1.01). There was also no significant effect on discharge disposition.
Conclusions:
No association was found between pre-hospital transportation time and in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with severe TBI.
