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Table 1 Baseline centre and patient characteristics

From: Quality indicators for patients with traumatic brain injury in European intensive care units: a CENTER-TBI study

Centre characteristics

Centre level (N = 54)

Patient level (N = 2006)

N

%

N

%

 Centre

  Academic

51/54

94

1901/2006

95

  Nonacademic

3/54

6

105/2006

5

 Centre locationa

  Urban

53/54

98

1990/2006

99

  Suburban

1/54

2

16/2006

1

 Trauma designationb

  Level I

37/54

69

1468/2006

73

  Level II

4/54

7

84/2006

4

  Level III

1/54

2

135/2006

7

  No designation/NA

12/54

22

319/2006

16

 Electronic patient records at the ICU

    

  Yes

42/54

78

1690/2006

84

  No

12/54

22

316/2006

16

 Locationc

  Northern Europe

20/54

37

650/2006

33

  Western Europe

19/54

35

809/2006

40

  Southern Europe

12/54

22

524/2006

26

  Eastern Europe

2/54

4

22/2006

1

  Israel

1/54

2

1/2006

0

Patient characteristics

Centre level (N = 54)

Patient level (N = 2006)

Median %

IQR

Min-max

N

%

 Age (years)d

  Adults (≥ 18 < 65 years)

74

63–84

0–100

1454/2006

72

  Elderly (≥ 65 years)

26

16–37

0–100

552/2006

28

 Gender

  Male

76

67–83

55–100

1479/2006

74

  Female

25

19–33

6–46

527/2006

26

 TBI severity (GCS)e

  Mild 13–15

34

22–43

5–100

671/1891

35

  Moderate 9–12

17

11–21

4–38

305/1891

16

  Severe 3–8

53

40–61

18–100

915/1891

48

 ISS score

  < 16

7

3–14

1–24

76/1963

4

  ≥ 16

100

96–100

76–100

1887/1963

96

 AISf

  Thorax/chest ≥ 3

33

20–40

8–100

654/2006

33

  Abdomen/pelvis ≥ 3

9

6–13

1–33

173/2006

9

 Cause of injury

  Road traffic incident

45

35–55

0–68

849/1921

44

  Incidental fall

40

33–50

11–100

802/1921

42

  Violence/assault

2

0–7

0–43

83/1921

5

  Suicide attempt

0

0–3

0–20

44/1921

2

  Other

6

0–11

0–38

143/1921

7

  1. This table describes the centre characteristics (at centre level) and the entire ICU population (patient level)
  2. AIS Abbreviated Injury Scale, GCS Glasgow Coma Scale, ICU intensive care unit, ISS injury severity scale, NA not applicable, TBI traumatic brain injury
  3. aUrban: A hospital location very near to a city and situated in a crowded area. Suburban: between urban and rural (an hospital location in or very near to the countryside in an area that is not crowded)
  4. bLocation is based on United Nations geoscheme: Northern Europe = Norway (N = 163), Sweden (N = 87), Finland (N = 132), Denmark (N = 3), the UK and Ireland (N = 271), and Baltic States: Latvia (N = 10), Lithuana (N = 23); Western Europe = Austria (N = 109), Belgium (N = 193), France (N = 115), Germany (N = 87), and the Netherlands (N = 359); Southern Europe = Serbia (N = 10), Italy (N = 293), and Spain (N = 195); Eastern Europe = Romania (N = 3), Hungary (N = 20);
  5. cLevel I trauma centre: A regional resource centre that generally serves large cities or population-dense areas. A level I trauma centre is expected to manage large numbers of severely injured patients (at least 1200 trauma patients annually or have 240 admissions with an injury severity score of more than 14). It is characterized by a 24-h in-house availability of an attending surgeon and the prompt availability of other specialties (e.g. neurosurgeon, trauma surgeon). Level II trauma centre: A level II trauma centre provides comprehensive trauma care in either a population-dense area in which a level II trauma centre may supplement the clinical activity and expertise of a level I institution or occur in less population-dense areas. In the latter case, the level II trauma centre serves as the lead trauma facility for a geographic area when a level I institution is not geographically close enough to do so. It is characterized by a 24-h in-house availability of an attending surgeon and the prompt availability of other specialties (e.g. neurosurgeon, trauma surgeon). Level III trauma centre: A level III trauma centre has the capacity to initially manage the majority of injured patients and have transfer agreements with a level I or II trauma centre for seriously injured patients whose needs exceed the facility’s resources
  6. dThe number of centres that admitted children was 27; therefore, the distribution and median is skewed towards 1%. One centre included 1 patient that was an elderly person (therefore max = 100%)
  7. eGCS at baseline: Post stabilization value, if absent prehospital values are used. Intubated/untestable verbal (V) scores are treated as unknown
  8. fAIS score of 3 or more reflects serious extracranial injury
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Critical Care

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