[Orthopedics and trauma surgery in German emergency departments : Evaluation from the AKTIN emergency department registry].

Abstract

Introduction: Emergency departments are a central component of emergency care in Germany. The decision by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) to establish central emergency departments and the required qualifications for medical personnel are changing emergency care throughout Germany; however, so far not much is known about the various patient groups treated in emergency departments.

Material and methods: For the present analysis a retrospective evaluation of treatment data for adult patients for the years 2019-2022 from 25 emergency departments in the AKTIN emergency department register was carried out. The reasons for presentation were classified in accordance with the Canadian Emergency Department Information System Presenting Complaint List 3.0 (CEDIS-PCL) and the emergency department diagnoses and inpatient treatment diagnoses based on the 10th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, German modification (ICD-10-GM) codes.

Results: Of the total of 2,102,029 treatment cases 795,904 (38%) patients can were assigned to the disciplines of orthopedics and trauma surgery. The majority of patients from the field of orthopedics and trauma surgery attended independently (51.5%) and remained outpatients (68.8%).

Conclusion: Even though many patients remained outpatients, expertise in the field of orthopedics and trauma surgery is needed to recognize potentially dangerous developments and indications for inpatient admission ("red flags"). At the same time there is the high potential to treat patients who remain outpatients at other levels of care.