Start date
01/01/2011
Primary investigator
Elliott R. Haut, MD, FACS
ehaut1@jhmi.edu
(410) 502-3122
Johns Hopkins Hospital, 625 Osler 600 N. Wolfe St.
Baltimore, MD 21287
Number of sites
0
Existing site names
Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins—Bayview, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Sinai Hospital (Baltimore), University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson University, Temple University, Hahnamann University
Sponsoring organization
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Abstract
Gunshot wounds are a common cause of injury for patients seen at urban trauma centers. The time-sensitive nature of these injuries is well accepted and the concept of the Golden Hour is well known by medical personnel and the lay public alike. Many patients with GSWs are transported by emergency medical services (EMS) providers who are capable of implementing procedures such as IV catheter placement and fluid administration, endotracheal intubation, spinal immobilization and chest needle decompression. Other GSW victims arrive at urban trauma centers via police or private vehicles with minimal pre-hospital medical intervention. No research has definitively answered the question of whether the benefits of pre-hospital medical procedures outweigh the risk of increased time to definitive trauma center care. Some research suggests there is no benefit to EMS transport in the urban environment while other data shows pre-hospital procedures may have detrimental effects on mortality for penetrating trauma victims. We hope to help answer these important questions and need your help to collect high-quality data from urban trauma centers across the country in order to determine the optimal way in which to treat the urban GSW victim in the pre-hospital environment. We plan to correlate the pre-hospital course (including specific pre-hospital procedures, transport mode, distance travelled and times) of GSW patients with patient outcomes. We will ask you to send us 5 years worth of registry data (2006-2010) and fill out a short hospital questionnaire. In addition, we will require some additional retrospectively collected data for a 2-year period (2009-2010) for all GSW patients at your trauma center. Although much of the data can be exported directly from your trauma registry, chart reviews are necessary to examine specific information about the pre-hospital care phase. We have an easy-to-use, web-based data collection tool to speed the data collection process. We also have our approved Institutional Review Board (IRB) application you can use to complete the forms needed for your local IRB approval at your institution.