[Time intervals during and after emergency room treatment. An analysis using the trauma register of the German Society for Trauma Surgery]

The prognosis of severely injured patients depends on a rapid diagnosis and early initiation of therapeutic procedures.To that end a total of 6,927 prospectively documented severely injured patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS)or =16 from the Trauma Registry of the German Trauma Society (DGU, 2002-2007) were analyzed with respect to time intervals during emergency trauma treatment.In cases of indicated emergency surgery the average +/-time in the emergency department was 42+/-34 min, in cases of early surgery 75+/-41 min and in cases of transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU) 83+/-43 min, respectively. The time from the last diagnostic procedure until the end of emergency treatment was 12 min (emergency surgery), 26 min (early surgery) and 32 min (ICU), respectively. Level I (78 min) and level II (72 min) trauma centres showed similar mean times in the emergency department while level III trauma centres had a mean time of 86 min. According to this analysis no general correlation between shorter duration of emergency trauma care and reduced mortality could be observed.The duration of time intervals depends on injury severity, treatment after completion of emergency trauma care and the level of the trauma centre. Time management in emergency trauma care can potentially be optimized after completion of the last diagnostic procedure in the emergency room.