Resuscitation
Volume 75, Issue 2 , Pages 286-297, November 2007

A comparison of European Trauma Registries:☆

The first report from the EuroTARN Group

  • The EuroTARN Writing Committee on behalf of the EuroTARN Group

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding author. Antoinette Edwards, The University of Manchester, The Trauma Audit & Research Network, Clinical Sciences Building, Hope Hospital, Salford, Greater Manchester M6 8HD, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 161 206 4397; fax: +44 161 206 4345. Email address: antoinette.edwards@manchester.ac.uk (A. Edwards).
    • The EuroTARN Writing Committee: Antoinette Edwards, Stefano Di Bartolomeo, Arturo Chieregato, Tim Coats, Francesco Della Corte, Peter Giannoudis, Ernestina Gomes, Henrik Groenborg, Rolf Lefering, Ari Leppaniemi, Hans Morten Lossius, Per Ortenwal, Olav Roise, Martin Rusnak, Leontien Sturms, Martin Smith, Annemarie Bondegaard Thomsen, Keith Willett, Maralyn Woodford, David Yates, Fiona Lecky.

Received 9 March 2007; received in revised form 7 June 2007; accepted 11 June 2007. published online 22 August 2007.

Summary 

Trauma management systems have grown in response to regional variations in trauma population, geographical conditions and the provisions of care. National Trauma Registries are being established to improve patient outcomes. However international comparisons could provide the potential to record regional performance, identify and share examples of best practice. To assess whether it was possible to compare data currently being collected by a number of trauma services across Europe, a group was established to develop a common core dataset and to assess the feasibility of collecting anonymised data.

Method

A series of meetings with European collaborators led to the creation of a group entitled EuroTARN. A website was developed in 2002 and interested parties were invited to submit suggestions for a European dataset using an online version of the Delphi technique. A core dataset was created in 2003 and in 2004 participants were invited to submit a summary of past cases online via the EuroTARN Website.

Results

Representatives from 14 countries met and corresponded to create the core dataset. During a trial data collection phase 14 institutions from 11 countries submitted unadjusted mortality data for over 21,500 cases with injury severity Scores of over 15 including information on multiply injured and head injured patients. The results demonstrated that there were observed differences in trauma outcome for similar groups of patients.

Conclusion

It is possible to collect and collate outcome data from established trauma registries across Europe with minimal additional infrastructure using a web-based system. Initial analysis of the results reveals significant international variations. The network has potential as a source of data for epidemiological and clinical research and for optimal trauma system design across Europe.

Keywords: Brain injury, Emergency Treatment, Europe, Trauma, Registry

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☆ A Spanish translated version of the summary of this article appears as Appendix in the final online version at 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2007.06.023.

PII: S0300-9572(07)00314-0

doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2007.06.023

Resuscitation
Volume 75, Issue 2 , Pages 286-297, November 2007

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