Comparison of severe trauma care effect before and after advanced trauma life support training

Objective: To study the emergency care effect of in-hospital severe trauma patients with the injury severity score (ISS)>= 16 after medical staff received advanced trauma life support (ATLS) training. Methods: ATLS training was implemented by lectures, scenarios, field practices, and examinations. The clinical effect of in-hospital severe trauma care was compared 2 years before and after ATLS training. Results: During 2 years (from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2005) before ATLS training, 438 cases of severe trauma were admitted and treated emergently in our department. Among them, ISS score was 28.6 +/- 7.8 on average, and 87 cases died with the mortality of 19.9%. The duration in emergency department and from admission to operation were 69.5 min +/- 11.5 min and 89.6 min +/- 9.3 min respectively. Two years (from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2008) after ATLS training, 382 cases of severe trauma were admitted and treated. The ISS was 25.3 +/- 6.1 on average and 62 cases died with the mortality of 15.1%. The duration in emergency department and from admission to operation were 47.8 min +/- 10.7 min and 61.5 min +/- 9.9 min respectively. The ISS score showed no significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05), but the mortality, the duration in emergency department and from admission to operation were markedly decreased after ATLS training and showed significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). Conclusion: ATLS course training can improve the emergency care effect of in-hospital severe trauma patients, and should be put into practice as soon as possible in China.