Pre-hospital rescue times and actions in severe trauma. A comparison between two trauma systems: Germany and the Netherlands

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of national pre-hospital rescue strategies on the status of severely injured patients at the time of admission to a Trauma Center (TC) in Germany or the Netherlands.

Patients and methods: This retrospective database analysis based on the TraumaRegister DGU(®) (TR-DGU) of the German Trauma Society compares the pre-hospital trauma system of Germany with three Trauma Centers (TCs) from the Netherlands. It comprises trauma patients from 2009 to 2012 admitted to a Level I TC, all patients aged 16-80 years primarily admitted with an ISS ≥ 16 and data available for mode of transport, pre-hospital measures and total pre-hospital time. Additionally three subgroups were formed by mode of transportation and involved personnel: Ambulance/Physician, Helicopter/Physician, Ambulance/EMT. Primary endpoint is the patient's status at the time of admission to the trauma room. Secondary endpoint is hospital mortality.

Results: A total of 12,168 patients met the inclusion criteria. Major differences in the injury patterns, pre-hospital rescue time, transport strategy and actions are documented. The mean ISS in the German overall group was 28.6 ± 12.2 compared to 27.4 ± 12.8 in the Dutch overall group. In the subgroups the highest injury severity with 29.8 ± 12.7 for German patients and 31.0 ± 14.6 for Dutch patients was found in the Helicopter/Physician subgroups and the lowest in patients transported by ambulance under emergency medical technician (EMT) care i.e. 24.2 ± 8.9 for German patients and 23.6 ± 10.3 for Dutch patients. The mean total pre-hospital time for patients admitted to Dutch TCs of 53.8 ± 28.7 min was 15.1 min shorter than for patients transported to German TCs 68.7 ± 28.6 min. The overall mean pre-hospital volume replacement of 1103 ± 821 ml for German patients was about twice as high as for Dutch patients (541 ± 700 ml). In physician led subgroups in the Netherlands higher rates of intubation, catecholamine administration and chest tubes are recorded. The basic vital signs from on-scene to hospital admission did not show relevant changes. Additional parameters available in the trauma room revealed a lower mean Base Excess (BE) for Dutch patients and a diminished mean prothrombin ratio for German patients. No reliable evidence was found that differences in the mortality analysis resulted from different national pre-hospital strategy.

Conclusions: Many differences in the national pre-hospital strategy were demonstrated but the effect on patient's status at the time of admission to trauma room remains unclear. A follow-up study, which mitigates the now known injury patterns has to be initiated to further substantiate the findings of this study.

Keywords: Emergency medical services; Germany; International comparison; Major trauma; Pre-hospital care; Rescue times; The Netherlands.