Assessment of traumatic deaths in a level one trauma center in Ankara, Turkey

Trauma management shows significant progress in last decades. Determining the time and place of deaths indicate where to focus to improve our knowledge about trauma. We conducted this retrospective study from data of trauma victims who were brought to a major tertiary hospital which is a level one trauma center in Ankara, Turkey, and died even if during transport or in the hospital between 1 March 2010 and 1 March 2013. The patients’ demographic characteristics, trauma mechanisms, time frames and causes of deaths determined by physicians were recorded. Traumas were grouped as “high energy trauma” (HET) and “low energy trauma” (LET). Falls from ground level were defined as LET. 209 traumatic deaths due to trauma or trauma-related conditions were found in the study period. 161 of 209 (78 %) patients suffered from HET. Motor vehicle collisions (MVC) (56 %) were the most common mechanism of trauma followed by burns (16 %), falls (11 %), gunshots (9 %) and stabs (6 %) in this group and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) (41 %) were the most common cause of death followed by circulatory collapse (22 %) and multi-organ failure (20 %). 36 % of deaths occurred before arrival at hospital, 25 % in the first 24 h of admission, 18 % between 2nd and 7th day and 21 % after first week. Trimodal distribution of traumatic deaths was not valid for all types of injuries and the most important factor to decrease traumatic deaths is still prevention. Also we have to keep on searching to improve our knowledge about trauma management.