Severe blunt trauma in Finland and Estonia: comparison of two regional trauma repositories

PURPOSE: Evolving trauma system of Estonia has undergone several reforms; however, performance and outcome indicators have not been benchmarked previously. Thus, we initiated a baseline study to compare demographics, management and outcomes of severely injured patients between Southern Finland and Northern Estonia utilizing regional trauma repositories. METHODS: A comparison of data fields of the Helsinki University Hospital trauma registry (HTR) and trauma registry at the North Estonia Medical Centre in Tallinn (TTR) between 1/1/2015 and 31/12/2016 was performed. The inclusion criterion was Injury Severity Score > 15. Transferred patients, patients with penetrating injuries, and pediatric patients were excluded. The data for comparison included demographics, Trauma Score-Injury Severity Score (TRISS), mortality, and standardized mortality ratio (SMR). Primary outcome was mortality and SMR per TRISS methodology. RESULTS: During the 2-year study period, 324 patients from the HTR and 152 from the TTR were included. Demographic profile was similar between the repositories with the exception of severe abdominal injuries being more prevalent at the TTR (25.0% vs. 13.3%, p = 0.002). Predominant injury mechanism was non-ground level fall in both repositories. Mortality was similar at 14.5% and 13.6% at the TTR and HTR, respectively (adj. p = 0.762; OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.64–1.99). SMR was lower at the HTR compared to the TTR (0.65 vs. 0.77, p > 0.05), however, the difference did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Benchmarking trauma repositories at a national level provides opportunities for quality and performance improvements. We observed comparable demographic profile and outcome indicators in the compared regional trauma systems.