When trauma patients are admitted to a dedicated trauma intensive care unit instead of a mixed ICU, they experience lower complication rates and death after complication, according to a study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.
Researchers performed a retrospective review of ICUs in two Level I trauma centers covered by one group of surgical intensivists — one of the centers had a dedicated TICU, while the other had a mixed ICU. They reviewed 3,833 patients, and they stratified them for demographics and clinical characteristics.
They found that trauma patients admitted to a TICU had significantly lower chance of developing a postinjury complication and overall mortality.
"Factors such as trauma nursing experience, education and unit management structure should be further explored to elucidate the observed improved outcomes," the study concludes.