Contemporary management of penetrating renal injuries: 11 year experience from two urban major trauma centres

Introduction This study reviews the type, severity, management and follow-up of renal trauma presenting to a major trauma centre in the northwest of England in the four years following inception of the major trauma centre. Given the recent introduction of major trauma centres nationally, research is needed within every specialty to ensure that the centralisation of services benefits all patients affected by these changes. Methods Patients presenting to Aintree University Hospital with renal trauma between June 2012 and June 2016 were identified using the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database. The data gathered retrospectively for each patient included mechanism of injury, injury severity score, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) grading, management of injury, and follow-up. Results Out of a total of 2595 trauma patients, 33 renal injuries were identified. The 31 patients who received imaging were classified according to AAST grading, with 8 Grade I (25.8%), 4 Grade II (12.9%), 8 Grade III (25.8%), 4 Grade IV (12.9%), and 7 Grade V (22.6%) injuries. Twenty-five out of the 30 surviving patients received conservative treatment, three patients received angioembolisation (AE), one patient received a laparotomy with renal suturing, and one patient required a nephrectomy. Of these 30 surviving patients, seven received urology follow-up in clinic (23%). Conclusion The findings appear to support the growing trend towards the conservative management of high-grade renal injuries, and provide further evidence for the value of AE in renal trauma. The success of AE in this study appears to support the centralisation of services in renal trauma; however, the low nephrectomy rate could be interpreted as suggestive of the opposite. The study revealed that improvements to follow-up are needed, and that further research should seek to inform the optimal radiological follow-up of high-grade renal injury.

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Speech and language therapy service provision in spinal injury units compared to major trauma centres in England: Are services matched?

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders ◽

10.1111/1460-6984.12671 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jackie McRae ◽

Jennifer Hayton ◽

Christina Smith

Keyword(s):

Service Provision ◽

Major Trauma ◽

Spinal Injury ◽

Speech And Language ◽

Language Therapy ◽

Speech And Language Therapy ◽

Trauma Centres ◽

Therapy Service

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The decline of elective operating at major trauma centres

Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England ◽

10.1308/rcsann.2017.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 99 (2) ◽

pp. 166-168

Author(s):

A Memarzadeh ◽

H Taki ◽

EK Tissingh ◽

P Hull

Keyword(s):

Lower Limb ◽

Major Trauma ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Future Research ◽

Trauma Network ◽

Trauma Centres ◽

Joint Registry ◽

District Hospitals ◽

Before And After ◽

Chi Squared

INTRODUCTION Major trauma is a leading cause of death in those aged under 40 years. In order to improve the care for multiply injured patients, the major trauma network was activated in April 2012 in England. Its goal was to link all district hospitals to major trauma centres (MTCs) and allow for rapid transfer of patients. Anecdotally, this has affected elective orthopaedic operating at MTCs. The aim of this study was to compare the number of lower limb arthroplasty procedures performed before and after the establishment of the trauma network. METHODS Data on hip and knee arthroplasties in England during the two years prior to and the two years following the introduction of the trauma network were obtained from the National Joint Registry. These were broken down by type of unit (MTCs vs non-MTCs). Differences between the number of hip and knee arthroplasties undertaken in the two time periods were analysed. The chi-squared test was used to assess statistical significance. RESULTS The total number of lower limb arthroplasties increased after the activation of the trauma network by 5.5% (from 211,453 to 223,119). When stratifying the data by type of unit, this increasing trend was present for non-MTCs; however, in MTCs, a reduction occurred: the number reduced by 13.6% (from 13,492 to 11,657). This reversal of trend was seen in both hip and knee procedures independently (both p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS The introduction of the trauma network has led to a reduction in the total number of lower limb arthroplasty procedures performed in MTCs. Various reasons have been postulated for this but its impact on surgical training and hospital finances must be scrutinised in future research.

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