Predictors of in-hospital mortality of trauma patients injured in vehicle accidents.
OBJECTIVE
Identification and assessment of predictive factors of in-hospital mortality of trauma patients injured in vehicle accidents.


METHODS
We reviewed the Trauma Registry data of Herakleion University Hospital, a level I trauma center in Crete, Greece. All 730 consecutive, adult motor-vehicle trauma patients admitted to our hospital from 1997 to 2000 were included in the study. Variables included in the analysis were: sex, age, mechanism of injury, injuries per anatomic region, initial vital signs, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Injury Severity Score (ISS), and the final outcome. In order to better describe continuous variables, two categories were created: age > or = 60 and <60; ISS > or = 18 and <18.


RESULTS
Mortality rate was 4.8% (n=35). Multivariate survival analysis showed that age greater than or equal to 60 years (p=0.0002), ISS greater than or equal to 18 (p=0.003), being a pedestrian (p=0.007), craniocerebral injuries (p=0.01), thoracic (p=0.01), and abdominal injuries (p=0.01) are independent predictors of the in-hospital mortality of the patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Trauma patients after vehicle accidents aged > or = 60, pedestrians, those with an ISS > or = 18 and craniocerebral, thoracic or abdominal injuries are at higher risk of an in-hospital fatal outcome.
Department of Surgical Oncology, Herakleion University Hospital, Herakleion Medical School, University of Crete, Herakleion, Crete, Greece. markogiannakis@easy.com
Haridimos
H
Markogiannakis
Elias
E
Sanidas
Evangelos
E
Messaris
Dimitrios
D
Koutentakis
Kalliopi
K
Alpantaki
Alexandros
A
Kafetzakis
Dimitrios
D
Tsiftsis
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D010343:Patient Admission; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology