Background and Purpose : Severe trauma is a critical individual health issue causing high mortality rates and long-term functional impairment, significantly impacting the quality of life for patients and their families. Furthermore, it is a major publ...
Background and Purpose : Severe trauma is a critical individual health issue causing high mortality rates and long-term functional impairment, significantly impacting the quality of life for patients and their families. Furthermore, it is a major public health issue that burdens national healthcare finances and society as a whole due to increased medical costs and social losses. Therefore, this study aims to systematically identify the factors contributing to mortality and disability among severe trauma patients admitted to regional trauma centers in Korea, based on the Korea Trauma Database (KTDB), and to propose directions for improving the severe trauma emergency medical system based on these findings.
Methods : Data from the KTDB at the National Medical Center from 2020 to 2023 were utilized. The final analysis cohort comprised 8,804 severely injured patients with an ISS score of 16 or higher. Among these, 3,449 survivors with confirmed GOS scores were selected for disability analysis. Analysis Methods: First, descriptive statistics were used to understand the overall distribution of demographic characteristics, injury characteristics, transport, and treatment characteristics among severe trauma patients. Second, differences in various characteristics were compared and analyzed between the survivor group and the deceased group, and between the non-disabled group and the disabled group. Third, hierarchical logistic regression analysis was performed, stepwise incorporating demographic characteristics, injury characteristics, transport characteristics, and treatment characteristics, to identify factors influencing mortality and disability.
Results : Among the total subjects analyzed, 12.4% died, and 27.5% of survivors developed disabilities. Factors commonly affecting both mortality and disability were gender, age, injury severity score (ISS), mode of transport to the hospital, injury-to-scene arrival time, and transport time. Factors affecting only mortality were scene dwell time, injury mechanism, work-related injury status, and time of day of arrival. Factors affecting only disability were activation team call status and on-call call status.
Conclusions : This study identifies key factors influencing the prognosis of severely injured trauma patients and proposes structural improvements to the trauma emergency medical system. These include strengthening management for elderly and high-risk patients, enhancing the functionality of the prehospital emergency medical system, improving the treatment-rehabilitation continuum for air-transported patients, and optimizing the specialized personnel dispatch system. These findings can serve as a basis for policy development aimed at improving survival rates and functional recovery in severely injured trauma patients.