The utilisation of international consensus definitions of the disease polytrauma: a systematic review

The disease of polytrauma is associated with significant healthcare burden and poor prognosis. The validated Newcastle and the Berlin consensus definitions of polytrauma have been proposed more than a decade ago for standardising clinical, scientific and advocacy related communications. This systematic review aims to evaluate the uptake of the Newcastle and the Berlin definitions of polytrauma since their introduction.

This systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD420251119950) adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A literature search of original research studies reported in English on polytrauma patients from 1st January 2015 to 31st of December 2025 was conducted, using Medline, Embase, Scopus, Pubmed, CINAHL and CENTRAL. Specific focus was on the utilisation of the Berlin and the Newcastle definitions, but all explicitly stated definitions of polytrauma were analysed.

A total of 2354 studies were identified through initial literature search. 1491 studies were excluded after screening by title and abstract. The full text review of 863 studies was performed and resulted in 88 eligible studies after the exclusion of 732 studies with no explicit definitions of polytrauma and 43 studies on non-human subjects. Ten studies (11.4%) used the Berlin definition of polytrauma, and six studies (6.8%) reported using the Newcastle definition. The consensus definitions were reported the most in 2024, with 2 studies using Newcastle and 3 studies using the Berlin definition of polytrauma.

Despite the establishment and utility in accurately representing the polytrauma population, the Newcastle and the Berlin definitions of polytrauma remain under-utilised in the current literature.