[Management of patients with severe head injury in Hungary, in 2002]. / Súlyos koponya-agy sérültek ellátása Magyarországon, 2002-ben.

In Hungary, epidemiological and clinical data regarding brain injury were rather scarce. The Hungarian Society for Neurotrauma aimed to make a nation-wide study about the number and the mortality of patients with severe head trauma, the organization of management, the diagnostics and monitoring in use, and finally about the clinical practice of management. A national survey was carried out with questionnaires asking about data of 2001, and a prospective, three-month-long data collection based on case studies was also executed in 2002. The Hungarian National Ambulance and Emergency Service centralized information gathering on rescue, and transportation. To collect data of hospital care, a network of regional coordinators and hospital communicators was developed. The responders covered 76% of the hospital neurotrauma care in the country. The number of brain trauma patients was close to 14,000 per year: 71.3% mild, 19.4% moderate, and 9.4% severe trauma. According to prospective study the mortality of those patients who were admitted as severe head injury patients was 55% and the mortality of those who got into severe condition later was 35% during the acute care. These data showed much worse outcome than those published in Western European countries and North America. In the background the authors found communication disorder between prehospital and hospital care, extreme long time spent until the patients got to the first CT-exam and to the definitive care. The implementation of Hungarian and international head trauma guidelines did not spread widely.

[Risk factors for fatal outcome in subdural hemorrhage]. / A subduralis vérzés miatt kezelt betegek halálozását befolyásoló tényezók.

BACKGROUND: Subdural haemorrhage (SDH) is of high public health importance because of its frequency, high case fatality ratio (CFR) and the young age of affected population. Despite the fact that the effectivity of guideline based treatment has been improved in the last decade, the Hungarian praxis shows variable compliance for recommendations. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to describe the heterogeneity of the treatment effectivity (by geographically identifying the populations provided with appropriate or non-optimal level care), to determine the relationship between the institutional proxies quality and the results of treatment for SDH by linking the proxies properties to the patients' records. METHODS: The institutions' protocols were assessed by a self-completed questionnaire in 1997. The participating hospitals treated 79% of the Hungarian patients with SDH. The Hungarian hospital discharge data in 1997-1999 were the source of patient specific data. The risk factors of lethal outcome were investigated by logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: High proportion of patients had been treated in hospital with low compliance for guidelines. The non-permanent access to neurosurgical service and CT facility, the lack of intracranial pressure monitoring and the respiration support provided out of intensive care units worsened the survival of subjects. It was quantified that the full compliance could have diminished the case fatality ratio by 15-20%. The ratio of extreme county level CFRs exceeded 2.36 and extrapolating the effectivity observed in the county with lowest lethality, the Hungarian CFR would have been reduced by 21% among patients with SDH main diagnosis. (The interpretation of findings is limited by the lack of differentiation between acute and chronic cases and of direct categorisation of severity for subdural haemorrhage in the official hospital discharge records). DISCUSSION: The study results urge the increase of compliance for evidence based guidelines, since despite of some validity issues, it was demonstrated that the deviation from recommended practice is reflected in the disadvantageous outcome.