ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the abilities of clinicians and clinical prediction models to accurately triage emergency department (ED) trauma patients. We compared the decisions made by clinicians with the Revised Trauma Score (RTS), the Glasgow Coma Scale, Age and Systolic Blood Pressure (GAP) score, the Kampala Trauma Score (KTS) and the Gerdin et al model. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Three hospitals in urban India. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 7697 adult patients who presented to participating hospitals with a history of trauma were approached for enrolment. The final study sample included 5155 patients. The majority (4023, 78.0%) were male. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The patient outcome was mortality within 30 days of arrival at the participating hospital. A grid search was used to identify model cut-off values. Clinicians and categorised models were evaluated and compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROCC) and net reclassification improvement in non-survivors (NRI+) and survivors (NRI-) separately. RESULTS: The differences in AUROCC between each categorised model and the clinicians were 0.016 (95% CI -0.014 to 0.045) for RTS, 0.019 (95% CI -0.007 to 0.058) for GAP, 0.054 (95% CI 0.033 to 0.077) for KTS and -0.007 (95% CI -0.035 to 0.03) for Gerdin et al. The NRI+ for each model were -0.235 (-0.37 to -0.116), 0.17 (-0.042 to 0.405), 0.55 (0.47 to 0.65) and 0.22 (0.11 to 0.717), respectively. The NRI- were 0.385 (0.348 to 0.4), -0.059 (-0.476 to -0.005), -0.162 (-0.18 to -0.146) and 0.039 (-0.229 to 0.06), respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest that there are no substantial differences in discrimination and net reclassification improvement between clinicians and all four clinical prediction models when using 30-day mortality as the outcome of ED trauma triage in adult patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (NCT02838459).
Subject(s)
Clinical Decision-Making/methods , Emergency Service, Hospital , Hospital Mortality , Models, Biological , Physicians , Triage/standards , Wounds and Injuries/therapy , Adult , Area Under Curve , Blood Pressure , Female , Glasgow Coma Scale , Hospitals , Humans , India/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Prospective Studies , ROC Curve , Trauma Severity Indices , Urban Population , Wounds and Injuries/mortality , Young AdultABSTRACT
AIM: To estimate the proportion of patients arriving with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) less than 9 who had a definitive airway placed prior to arrival. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the data from a multicentre, prospective observational research project entitled Towards Improved Trauma Care Outcomes in India. Adults aged ≥18 years with an isolated traumatic brain injury (TBI) who were transferred from another hospital to the emergency department of the participating hospital with a GCS less than 9 were included. Our outcome was a definitive airway, defined as either intubation or surgical airway, placed prior to arrival at a participating centre. RESULTS: The total number of patients eligible for this study was 1499. The median age was 40 years and 84% were male. Road traffic injuries and falls comprised 88% of the causes of isolated TBI. The number of patients with GCS<9 who had a definitive airway placed before reaching the participating centres was 229. Thus, the proportion was 0.15 (95% CI 0.13 to 0.17). The proportions of patients with a definitive airway who arrived after 24 hours (19%) were approximately double the proportion of patients who arrived within 6 hours (10%) after injury to the definitive care centre. CONCLUSION: The rates of definitive airway placement are poor in adults with an isolated TBI who have been transferred from another health facility to tertiary care centres in India.
