• Demetrios Demetriades, Matthew Martin, Ali Salim, Peter Rhee, Carlos Brown, Jay Doucet, and Linda Chan.
• Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. demetria@usc.edu
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2006 Feb 1;202(2):212-5; quiz A45.

BackgroundWe studied the association of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) trauma center designation and mortality in adult patients with severe trauma (Injury Severity Score > 15). ACS designation of trauma centers into different levels requires substantial financial and human resources commitments. There is very little work published on the association of ACS trauma center designation and outcomes in severe trauma.Study DesignNational Trauma Data Bank study including all adult trauma admissions (older than 14 years of age) with Injury Severity Score (ISS) > 15. The relationship between ACS level of trauma designation and survival outcomes was evaluated after adjusting for age, mechanism of injury, ISS, hypotension on admission, severe liver trauma, aortic, vena cava, iliac vascular, and penetrating cardiac injuries.ResultsA total of 130,154 patients from 256 trauma centers met the inclusion criteria. Adjusted mortality in ACS-designated Level II centers and undesignated centers was notably higher than in Level I centers (adjusted odds ratio, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.09-120; p < 0.0001 and adjusted odds ratio, 1.09; CI, 1.05-1.13; p < 0.0001, respectively).ConclusionsSeverely injured patients with ISS > 15 treated in ACS Level I trauma centers have considerably better survival outcomes than those treated in ACS Level II centers.

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