Eficacia de la formación ITLS (international trauma life support) en el manejo del paciente con trauma grave en un servicio de urgencias: creación de herramientas de mejora

Abstract

Introduction

In the emergency department, providing care to patient who are victims of severe trauma presents a challenge due to the potential severity of their condition. There are accepted guidelines for trauma management, such as those from the International Trauma Life Support (ITLS). However, the heterogeneity of emergency services (ES) does not always allow for their proper application.

Methodology

A pre- and post-intervention descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of structured training in the management of severe trauma in an ES of a secondary level hospital. The study was carried out in three phases: (1) Training of ES professionals through a course based on the ITLS methodology; (2) Review of medical records from the pre- and post-training periods for patients classified as "severe trauma," assessing the collected information according to the training specifications. A retrospective review of 182 medical records was conducted, including 117 from the pre-training period and 65 from the post-training period. Inclusion criteria were: patients who underwent a whole-body computed tomography (CT) scan for the diagnosis of severe trauma, adults of both sexes; (3) Compilation of a list of detected information gaps and the creation of an improvement tool for the assessment and management of severe trauma by the involved professionals.

Results and conclusion

In the pre-training period, deficiencies in information collection and structured assessment were identified, which improved in the post-training period. However, specific information gaps were still detected after the training, leading to the proposal of a tool called the "Polytrauma Patient checklist."