Changes in injury patterns, injury severity and hospital mortality in motorized vehicle accidents: a retrospective, cross-sectional, multicenter study with 19,225 cases derived from the TraumaRegister DGU

Purpose In the last 20 years, the number of fatalities due to road traffic accidents (RTA) in Germany has steadily decreased from 7503 to 2724 per year. Due to legal regulations, educational measures and the continuous development of safety technology the number of severe traumatic injuries and inju...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of trauma and emergency surgery (Munich : 2007) 2023-08, Vol.49 (4), p.1917-1925
Main Authors: Koch, Daniel Anthony, Hagebusch, Paul, Lefering, Rolf, Faul, Philipp, Hoffmann, Reinhard, Schweigkofler, Uwe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age groups
Critical Care Medicine
Data analysis
Emergency medical care
Emergency Medicine
Fatalities
Head injuries
Intensive
Intensive care
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mortality
Original
Original Article
Participation
Sports Medicine
Surgery
Surgical Orthopedics
Traffic accidents & safety
Trauma
Trauma centers
Traumatic Surgery
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Summary:Purpose In the last 20 years, the number of fatalities due to road traffic accidents (RTA) in Germany has steadily decreased from 7503 to 2724 per year. Due to legal regulations, educational measures and the continuous development of safety technology the number of severe traumatic injuries and injury patterns are most likely to change. The aim of the study was to analyse severely injured motorcyclists (MC) and car occupants (CO) that were involved in RTAs in the last 15 years and investigate the development and changes of injury patterns, injury severity and hospital mortality. Methods We retrospectively evaluated data from the TraumaRegister DGU ® (TR-DGU) considering all RTA-related injured MCs and COs ( n  = 19,225) that were registered in the TR-DGU from 2006 to 2020 with a primary admission to a trauma center with continuous participation (14 of 15 years) in the TR-DGU, an Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 16 and aged between 16 and 79 years. The observation period was divided into three 5-year interval subgroups for further analysis. Results The mean age increased by 6.9 years and the ratio of severely injured MCs to COs changed from 1:1.92 to 1:1.45. COs were in 65.8% male and more often severely injured in the age groups under 30, while the majority of severely injured MCs were in the age group around 50 years and in 90.1% male. The ISS (− 3.1 points) as well as the mortality of both groups (CO: 14.4% vs. 11.8%; MC: 13.2% vs. 10.2%) steadily decreased over time. Nevertheless, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) hardly changed and stayed 
ISSN:1863-9933
1863-9941
DOI:10.1007/s00068-023-02257-1