Correlation between Hospital Volume of Severely Injured Patients and In-Hospital Mortality of Severely Injured Pediatric Patients in Japan: A Nationwide 5-Year Retrospective Study

Abstract

Appropriate trauma care systems, suitable for children are needed; thus, this retrospective nationwide study evaluated the correlation between the annual total hospital volume of severely injured patients and in-hospital mortality of severely injured pediatric patients (SIPP) and compared clinical parameters and outcomes per hospital between low- and high-volume hospitals. During the five-year study period, we enrolled 53,088 severely injured patients (Injury Severity Score, ≥16); 2889 (5.4%) were pediatric patients aged p p p = 0.246, 2.13 (0–8.33) vs. 0 (0–100)) and standardized mortality ratio (SMR) values (p = 0.244, 0.31 (0–0.79) vs. 0 (0–4.87)) were observed between the two groups; however, the 13 high-volume hospitals had an SMR of <1.0. Centralizing severely injured patients, regardless of age, to a higher volume hospital might contribute to survival benefits of SIPP.

Keywords

• pediatric patient
• severely injured patient
• volume–outcome relationship
• hospital volume
• centralization