Eine optimierte Bewertung „Schwerverletzter“ nach Verkehrsunfällen zur Dokumentation von Unfallschwerpunkten

The road safety policy of the European Union demands the reduction of traffic accidents and related bodily injuries. In addition to new innovations in the automotive industry and improvements in police and medical care, the analysis and remedy of so-called accident black spots, which are based on official documentation of seriously injured patients, is an increasingly important issue. Within the official traffic statistics the casualty is classified by the severity of injuries according to the length of stay in hospital into a three-class system which includes lightly injured, seriously injured and fatally injured (death). This thesis, “An optimized assessment of ‘severely injured patients’ for the documentation of traffic black spots” evaluates the significance of this classification by using established Trauma Scores to reassess the severity of injuries. The collective includes patients who have been listed by the official traffic statistics of the Aachen City Region in 2006 as “seriously injured.” Associated correlation analysis concerning length of hospitalization and incurring costs should revise the significance of Trauma –Scores, which were used. All parameters used show that a majority of patients are just slightly injured and that the injury severity varies widely. The results show that a more accurate assessment of the seriously injured group can be achieved through a differentiating view regarding length of hospitalization as a time criteria. This would support the work of traffic engineers and make it easier to fulfill the requirements of the European Union. Moreover, the results indicate a discrepancy of injury severity between patients treated at a maximum care hospital and those treated at a university teaching hospital. These different standards should be considered in the planning and realization of a trauma network. The results of this model study in the Aachen City Region in 2006 should be validated in future research in order to verify the transferability to all of Germany or the European Union