Advanced trauma life support training for hospital staff.
BACKGROUND
Injury is responsible for an increasing global burden of death and disability. As a result, new models of trauma care have been developed. Many of these, though initially developed in high-income countries (HICs), are now being adopted in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). One such trauma care model is advanced trauma life support (ATLS) training in hospitals, which is being promoted in LMICs as a strategy for improving outcomes for victims of trauma. The impact of this health service intervention, however, has not been rigorously tested by means of a systematic review in either HIC or LMIC settings.


OBJECTIVE
To quantify the impact of ATLS training for hospital staff on injury mortality and morbidity in hospitals with and without such a training program.


METHODS
We searched the CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PUBMED, CINAHL and ZETOC databases and the Cochrane Injuries Group's Specialised Register. For this update, the search strategy was expanded to include more parameters on research methodology and was run for all years to September 2008.


METHODS
Randomised controlled trials, controlled trials and controlled before-and-after studies comparing the impact of ATLS-trained hospital staff versus non-ATLS trained hospital staff on injury mortality and morbidity.


METHODS
One author applied the eligibility criteria to trial reports for inclusion, and extracted data.


RESULTS
There is a limited amount of literature about this topic. None of the studies identified by the search met the inclusion criteria for this review.


CONCLUSIONS
There is no clear evidence that ATLS or similar programs impact the outcome for victims of injury, although there is some evidence that educational initiatives improve knowledge of hospital staff of available emergency interventions. Furthermore, there is no evidence that trauma management systems that incorporate ATLS training impact positively on outcome. Future research should concentrate on the evaluation of trauma systems incorporating ATLS, both within hospitals and at the health system level, by using more rigorous research designs.
Department of Surgery, University of California San Francisco, S-321, 513 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. c.farquhar@auckland.ac.nz
Sudha
S
Jayaraman
Dinesh
D
Sethi
D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D006801:Humans; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D014194:Traumatology / Q000193:education*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*