Over 5 million people die from traumatic injuries worldwide every year. Many of these traumatic injuries, such as road-traffic accidents or stabbings, result in damage to the organs or blood vessels in the abdomen and these patients may require an emergency operation on their abdomen, called a trauma laparotomy, to save their life.
A trauma laparotomy is a key operation in trauma care, as it can help to control bleeding or repair a hole in an organ, however patients are often very sick when undergoing this procedure and unfortunately survival rates following a trauma laparotomy remain low.
The differences in patients abdominal injuries, the hospital care they receive, and their overall outcomes across the world are not known. There are a large number of trauma-related deaths occurring each year around the world, including among those who have undergone a trauma laparotomy, and if survival rates are to be improved, high-quality data is needed to help us better understand where the improvements in care are required.
Run and funded by the University of Cambridge, this study will collect data on all patients across all ages during a one month period who undergo a trauma laparotomy within the first 5 days of them presenting to hospital following injury. We will include patients from any hospital across the world that performs trauma surgery, collecting data before, during, and after the operation. We will follow these patients up for 30 days following their operation.
If you’re a clinician involved in trauma care and interested in being involved, follow the sign-up link to be sent more information today!