• Ezra Y Koh, Blessing T Oyeniyi, Erin E Fox, Michelle Scerbo, Jeffrey S Tomasek, Charles E Wade, and John B Holcomb.
• Center for Translational Injury Research, Department of Surgery, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address: ezra.koh@uth.tmc.edu.
• Am. J. Surg. 2019 Sep 1; 218 (3): 501-506.

BackgroundMost studies of trauma deaths include non-preventable deaths, potentially limiting successful intervention efforts. In this study we aimed to compare the potentially preventable trauma deaths between 2 time periods at our institution.MethodsTrauma patients who died in our hospital in 2005-2006 or 2012-2013 were included, non-preventable deaths were excluded from analysis. The Mann-Whitney and chi square test were used to compare variables between both time periods.Results80% of deaths were non-preventable. Between the study time periods there was a decrease in potentially preventable deaths, from 29% to 12%, p < 0.001. Head injury deaths significantly decreased (40.6%-24.6%, p = 0.03), while hemorrhage deaths were stable during both time periods (47.6%-43.1%, p = 0.55).ConclusionPotentially preventable trauma deaths decreased during the study period. Hemorrhage remains constant as the leading cause of potentially preventable deaths. Continued research to improve survival from hemorrhage is warranted.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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