Trends in intubation rates and durations in ventilated severely injured trauma patients: an analysis from the TraumaRegister DGU®.
BACKGROUND
Endotracheal intubation in severely injured patients is known to be a risk factor for systemic complications. We aimed to examine the changes in intubation rates and durations in severely injured trauma patients, and rates of the systemic complications associated with ventilation changes by using a large trauma registry over the period of 13 years.


METHODS
Patient demographics, Injury Severity Score (ISS), ventilation days, ventilation free days (VFD), and prevalence of systemic complications (sepsis and multiple organ failure (MOF)) were obtained from the TraumaRegister DGU® and were compared over the study period.


RESULTS
During the study period (2002 - 2014), 35,232 patients were recorded in TraumaRegister DGU®. 72.7 % of patients (n= 25,629) were intubated, and 27.3 % (n= 9603) of patients did not require mechanical ventilation throughout their hospital stay. The mean age was 48 ± 21 years, mean ISS was 27.9 ± 11.5, mean length of ICU stay was 11.7 ± 13.8 days, mean time on mechanical ventilator was 7.1 ± 11.3 days, and mean ventilation free days (spontaneous respiration) was 19.5 ± 11.9 days. We observed a reduction in the intubation rates (87.5 % in 2002 versus 63.6 % in 2014), and early extubation (10 ventilation days in 2002, and 5.9 days in 2014) over time.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study reveals a reduction in intubation rates and ventilation duration during the observation period. Moreover, we were able to observe decreased incidence of systemic complications such as sepsis over the 13 year study period, while no changes in incidence of MOF were registered. The exact relationship can not be proven in our study. This needs to be addressed in further analysis.
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Khalid
K
Almahmoud
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Michel
M
Teuben
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Hagen
H
Andruszkow
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Klemens
K
Horst
Institute for Research in Operative Medicine (IFOM), University Witten/Herdecke, 51109 Cologne, Germany.
Rolf
R
Lefering
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Frank
F
Hildebrand
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Hans Christoph
HC
Pape
Department of Orthopedics Trauma Surgery, University of Aachen Medical Center, 52074 Aachen, Germany ; Harald Tscherne Laboratory, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Roman
R
Pfeifer
Intubation; MOF; Polytrauma; Sepsis; Systemic Complications; Ventilation