TY - JOUR

T1 - Primary versus early secondary referral to a specialized neurotrauma center in patients with moderate/severe traumatic brain injury

T2 - a CENTER TBI study

AU - Sewalt, Charlie Aletta

AU - Gravesteijn, Benjamin Yaël

AU - Menon, David

AU - Lingsma, Hester Floor

AU - Maas, Andrew I.R.

AU - Stocchetti, Nino

AU - Venema, Esmee

AU - Lecky, Fiona E.

AU - Åkerlund, Cecilia

AU - Amrein, Krisztina

AU - Andelic, Nada

AU - Andreassen, Lasse

AU - Anke, Audny

AU - Antoni, Anna

AU - Audibert, Gérard

AU - Azouvi, Philippe

AU - Azzolini, Maria Luisa

AU - Bartels, Ronald

AU - Barzó, Pál

AU - Beauvais, Romuald

AU - Beer, Ronny

AU - Bellander, Bo Michael

AU - Belli, Antonio

AU - Benali, Habib

AU - Berardino, Maurizio

AU - Beretta, Luigi

AU - Blaabjerg, Morten

AU - Bragge, Peter

AU - Brazinova, Alexandra

AU - Brinck, Vibeke

AU - Brooker, Joanne

AU - Brorsson, Camilla

AU - Buki, Andras

AU - Bullinger, Monika

AU - Cabeleira, Manuel

AU - Caccioppola, Alessio

AU - Calappi, Emiliana

AU - Calvi, Maria Rosa

AU - Cameron, Peter

AU - Lozano, Guillermo Carbayo

AU - Carbonara, Marco

AU - Chevallard, Giorgio

AU - Chieregato, Arturo

AU - Citerio, Giuseppe

AU - Cnossen, Maryse

AU - Coburn, Mark

AU - Coles, Jonathan

AU - Fabricius, Martin

AU - Kondziella, Daniel

AU - CENTER-TBI Participants and Investigators

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Background: Prehospital care for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) varies with some emergency medical systems recommending direct transport of patients with moderate to severe TBI to hospitals with specialist neurotrauma care (SNCs). The aim of this study is to assess variation in levels of early secondary referral within European SNCs and to compare the outcomes of directly admitted and secondarily transferred patients. Methods: Patients with moderate and severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale < 13) from the prospective European CENTER-TBI study were included in this study. All participating hospitals were specialist neuroscience centers. First, adjusted between-country differences were analysed using random effects logistic regression where early secondary referral was the dependent variable, and a random intercept for country was included. Second, the adjusted effect of early secondary referral on survival to hospital discharge and functional outcome [6 months Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE)] was estimated using logistic and ordinal mixed effects models, respectively. Results: A total of 1347 moderate/severe TBI patients from 53 SNCs in 18 European countries were included. Of these 1347 patients, 195 (14.5%) were admitted after early secondary referral. Secondarily referred moderate/severe TBI patients presented more often with a CT abnormality: mass lesion (52% vs. 34%), midline shift (54% vs. 36%) and acute subdural hematoma (77% vs. 65%). After adjusting for case-mix, there was a large European variation in early secondary referral, with a median OR of 1.69 between countries. Early secondary referral was not associated with functional outcome (adjusted OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.78–1.69), nor with survival at discharge (1.05, 0.58–1.90). Conclusions: Across Europe, substantial practice variation exists in the proportion of secondarily referred TBI patients at SNCs that is not explained by case mix. Within SNCs early secondary referral does not seem to impact functional outcome and survival after stabilisation in a non-specialised hospital. Future research should identify which patients with TBI truly benefit from direct transportation.

AB - Background: Prehospital care for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) varies with some emergency medical systems recommending direct transport of patients with moderate to severe TBI to hospitals with specialist neurotrauma care (SNCs). The aim of this study is to assess variation in levels of early secondary referral within European SNCs and to compare the outcomes of directly admitted and secondarily transferred patients. Methods: Patients with moderate and severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale < 13) from the prospective European CENTER-TBI study were included in this study. All participating hospitals were specialist neuroscience centers. First, adjusted between-country differences were analysed using random effects logistic regression where early secondary referral was the dependent variable, and a random intercept for country was included. Second, the adjusted effect of early secondary referral on survival to hospital discharge and functional outcome [6 months Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE)] was estimated using logistic and ordinal mixed effects models, respectively. Results: A total of 1347 moderate/severe TBI patients from 53 SNCs in 18 European countries were included. Of these 1347 patients, 195 (14.5%) were admitted after early secondary referral. Secondarily referred moderate/severe TBI patients presented more often with a CT abnormality: mass lesion (52% vs. 34%), midline shift (54% vs. 36%) and acute subdural hematoma (77% vs. 65%). After adjusting for case-mix, there was a large European variation in early secondary referral, with a median OR of 1.69 between countries. Early secondary referral was not associated with functional outcome (adjusted OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.78–1.69), nor with survival at discharge (1.05, 0.58–1.90). Conclusions: Across Europe, substantial practice variation exists in the proportion of secondarily referred TBI patients at SNCs that is not explained by case mix. Within SNCs early secondary referral does not seem to impact functional outcome and survival after stabilisation in a non-specialised hospital. Future research should identify which patients with TBI truly benefit from direct transportation.

KW - Referral

KW - Transfer

KW - Trauma system

KW - Traumatic brain injury

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113182000&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s13049-021-00930-1

DO - 10.1186/s13049-021-00930-1

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34348784

AN - SCOPUS:85113182000

VL - 29

JO - Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine

JF - Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine

SN - 1757-7241

IS - 1

M1 - 113

ER -