Journal of Emergencies, Trauma and Shock (Jan 2019)

Do the care process and survival chances differ in patients arriving to a level 1 Indian trauma center, during-hours and after-hours?

  • Kapil Dev Soni,
  • Santosh Mahindrakar,
  • Gaurav Kaushik,
  • Subodh Kumar,
  • Sushma Sagar,
  • Amit Gupta

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/JETS.JETS_76_18
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 2
pp. 128 – 134

Abstract

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Introduction: Trauma systems vary in performance during different time periods and may affect the patient outcomes, especially in resource-limited settings. The present study was undertaken to study the pattern, epidemiological profile, processes of care variations of trauma victims presenting during-hours and after-hours in a level 1 trauma Center of a lower middle-income country. Methodology: Retrospective analyses of prospectively collected data registry at a single tertiary care center. Data collected from 2013 to 2015 were analyzed. Patients with a history of trauma and admission to the center or death between arrival and admission were included. Isolated limb injury and patients dead on arrival were excluded. Results: Of 4692, 1789 (38.1%) patients arrived and were admitted during-hours and 2903 (61.9%) after-hours. The overall in-hospital mortality was 14.9% in the cohort. Moreover, it was 16.10% during after-hours in comparison to 13.0% during-hours. The Revised Trauma Score was statistically different during-hours and after-hours suggesting patients with greater physiological derangement after-hours. The Kaplan–Meier survival curves for 7 days were comparable in two groups with the log-rank test of 078. The proportion of initial radiological investigations (chest X-ray, focused assessment sonography in trauma [FAST], and computerized tomography [CT] scans) was ranged from 84.9% for CT scans in the cohort to 99.3% for FAST. Conclusions: Processes of care do not differ significantly for the patients admitted at a level 1 trauma center irrespective of time of the day. Although survival probability for the initial 7 days of follow-up is comparable between two groups; however, for 30 and 90 days of follow-up they are significantly different between during-hours and after-hours, likely due to injury severity.

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