title: Is preoperative period associated with severity and unexpected death of injured patients needing emergency trauma surgery?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early operative control of hemorrhage is the key to saving the lives of severe trauma patients. We investigated whether emergency room (ER) stay time [time from the ER to the operating room (OR)] is associated with trauma severity and unexpected trauma death [Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) method-based probability of survival (Ps) ≥0.5 but died] of injured patients needing emergency trauma surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective review of all trauma patients requiring emergency surgery and all patients with pelvic fractures requiring transcatheter arterial embolization at our hospital from January 2002 to December 2012. We analyzed the relationships among injury severity on ER admission [Injury Severity Score (ISS); Revised Trauma Score (RTS); Ps; Shock Index (SI); American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA-PS)]; mortality rate; unexpected trauma death rate; and ER stay time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ER stay times were significantly shorter for patients with life-threatening conditions [RTS <6.0 (p < 0.01), Ps <0.5 (p < 0.001), SI ≥1.0 (p < 0.01), and ASA-PS ≥4E (p < 0.001)]. In particular, ER stay time was inversely related to injury severity up to 120 min. The risk of unexpected trauma death significantly increased as ER stay time increased over 90 min (p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that all medical staff should work together effectively on high-risk patients in the ER, bringing them immediately to the OR according to their level of risk. If injured patients need emergency trauma surgery, ER stay times should be kept as short as possible to reduce unexpected trauma death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Ohta General Hospital Foundation, Ohta Nishinouchi Hospital, 2-5-20 Nishinouchi, Koriyama, Fukushima, 963-8558, Japan, windmill@fmu.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ono
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.forename: Akinori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Yoshibumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kumada
authors.forename: Kazuaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shinohara
authors.forename: Choichiro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tase
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057234:Preoperative Period; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery*