Studies of Tissue Perfusion Failure at LAC+USCMC and the Incorporation of the Results into a National Trauma Database

The goal was to produce a comprehensive, objective, unbiased database that can be independently mined by members of the combat-casualty-care community to identify patients who are at risk in the earliest stage of the therapeutic process, adjust therapies to improve outcomes, and promptly determine whether the new therapy will lead to survival. A retrospective database was constructed with emphasis on early time hemodynamic studies of patients with severe trauma. Data on a total of approximately 740 patients seen at our institution were combined in an easily accessible format from three mini-databases: prehospital (Department of Health Services data), Emergency Room, and ICU. The combined deidentified data on the 732 patients was delivered to the US Army Institute for Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on July 27, 2005. The original document contains color images.