Background: Trauma is the leading cause of death among casualties between 1 and 44 years. A large proportion of trauma deaths occurs even before arriving at a medical facility. The paucity of prehospital data is a major reason for the lagging development of prehospital trauma care research. This study aims to describe the Israel Defense Forces Prehopistal Trauma Registry, the steps taken to improve data collection and quality, the resulting trends, and the registry's contribution to policymaking.
Methods: This study explores the quantity and quality of point of injury and prehospital data in the registry between the years 1997 and 2018. We assessed the number of recorded casualties per year, casualties characteristics, and documentation variables in the registry, with a specific focus on documentation of vital signs throughout the years.
Results: Overall, 17,905 casualties were recorded. Most casualties were young males (88.6%)-military personnel (52.7%), Syrian refugees (16.2%), Israeli civilians (11.5%), and Palestinians (9.0%). The median number of annual records from 2006 onward was significantly higher compared with before 2006 (1,000 [IQR, 792-1,470] vs. 142 [IQR, 129-156]). Between 2010 and 2018, documentation rate increased in all vital signs investigated including heart rate (56.3% vs. 1.0%), level of consciousness (55.1% vs. 0.3%), respiratory rate (51.8% vs. 0.3%), blood oxygen saturation (50.0% vs. 1.0%), Glasgow Coma Scale (48.2% vs. 0.4%), systolic blood pressure (45.7% vs. 0.8%), and pain (19.1% vs. 0.5%).
Conclusion: Point of injury and prehospital documentation are rare yet essential for ongoing improvement of combat casualty care. The Israel Defense Forces Trauma Registry is one of the largest and oldest prehospital computerized military trauma registries in the world. This study shows a major improvement in the quantity and then in the quality of prehospital documentation throughout the years that affected guidelines and policy. Further work will focus on improving data completeness and accuracy.
Level of evidence: Retrospective study, level III.