The TraumaRegister DGU® as data source for monitoring severe injuries

Abstract

The TraumaRegister DGU® of the German Society for Trauma Surgery (TR-DGU) has collected data on the treatment of severely injured accident victims in Germany since 1993. Due to the current number of more than 600 participating clinics which regularly receive quality comparison reports, these register data are becoming an increasingly more valuable source for healthcare research. The aims of this article are to describe the potential of the TR-DGU for dealing with epidemiological questions and for describing the quality of the process and results for treatment of severely injured patients. The TR-DGU includes approximately 100 details per patient on the person, the circumstances of the accident, the injury pattern, the preclinical and hospital treatment, the condition of the patient and the outcome. Using comparative analyses the observed mortality is adjusted by considering prognostically relevant findings. Some key features of the register are reported for patients who were treated in German hospitals between 2002 and 2012 with an injury severity score (ISS) of ≥9 points. Since 1993 more than 122,000 patients have been included in the register. The majority are traffic accident victims (57 %), followed by patients with falls from low heights (< 3 m, 17 %) or greater heights (> 3 m, 16 %). Among the traffic accident victims approximately one half are car drivers or passengers (46 %), one quarter are motorbike drivers (25 %) and the rest are cyclists (14 %) and pedestrians (13 %). The mortality of patients with an ISS ³ 9 is 12.8 %. This value is approximately 1-2 % below the expected prognosis based on data from the 1990s. The TR-DGU is not only a successful instrument for external quality assurance of the treatment of severely injured patients but also an increasingly more valuable source for scientific evaluation within the framework of healthcare research. The introduction of regional trauma networks by the DGU has made a substantial contribution to the comprehensive compilation of severely injured patients and allows increasingly more detailed information on the epidemiology of severe injuries in Germany to be compiled.