We have read with interest the recent article by Costa Navarro about trauma systems in Spain that analyzed several hospitals specialized in trauma care. We would like to congratulate the authors for their review of more than 100 centers in their study and for the conclusions to which they arrived, with which we agree completely. However, we would like to make some comments based on what we have...

OBJECTIVE Prehospital care is a critical component of efforts to lower trauma mortality. In less-developed countries, scarce resources dictate that any improvements in prehospital care must be low in cost. In one Latin American city, recent efforts to improve prehospital care have included an increase in the number of sites of ambulance dispatch from two to four and introduction of the Prehospi...

objective: most previous retrospective studies failed to show a consistent association between pre-hospital time intervals and mortality in trauma patients, bringing the recommendation of “transport fast to increase survival” under question. the aim of this study was to evaluate the association of response time, scene time, and transport time with 24-hour in-hospital mortality.   methods: in th...

OBJECTIVES The benefits of prehospital trauma management remain controversial. This study aimed to compare the processes of care and outcomes of trauma patients treated by paramedics, who are trained in advanced prehospital trauma care, with those treated by ambulance technicians. METHODS A six year prospective study was conducted of adult trauma patients attended to by the Scottish Ambulance...

BACKGROUND In The Netherlands, standard prehospital trauma care is provided by emergency medical services and can be supplemented with advanced trauma care by Mobile Medical Teams. Due to observed over and undertriage in the dispatch of the Mobile Medical Team for major trauma patients, the accuracy of the dispatch criteria has been disputed. In order to obtain recommendations to invigorate the...

Few data warehousing systems provide a complete and continuous history of trauma patients from the outset of prehospital care to the point of hospital discharge. Typical prehospital database systems are limited to data recorded by emergency personnel during patient transport and contain a minimal number of data points. This incomplete information provides a snapshot of patient status during the...

INTRODUCTION Road traffic injuries (RTIs) and attendant fatalities on Nigerian roads have been on an increasing trend over the past three decades. Mortality from RTIs in Nigeria is estimated to be 162 deaths/100,000 population. This study aims to compare and identify best prehospital trauma care practices in Nigeria and some other African countries where prehospital services operate. METHODS ...

OVERVIEW For time-sensitive, critical-care scenarios requiring transport—such as stroke, high-risk pregnancy, trauma, and pediatric care—reducing the elapsed time between symptom onset and treatment can be of great benefit to the patient while reducing the health care costs to the individual, the hospital, and the public. With mobile telemedicine, valuable prehospital transport time can be used...

Trauma remains the leading cause of death in adults worldwide,1 and a significant portion of those deaths occur within the first 6 to 24 hours after initial injury secondary to hemorrhage.2,3 The evolution of modern-day trauma care has witnessed revolutionary changes over the past century, with lessons learned from war providing the primary stimulus. Major advances in surgical vascular procedur...