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Traffic AccidentsNCT01603537

The Impact of Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) on Outcome of Traffic Injury

An observational study of Traffic Accidents, run by Uppsala University Hospital at 1 site in Sweden.

Unknown status

Status not confirmed. The sponsor has not verified this record for over two years, so it may be out of date.

Official record
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Trial summary

Trauma is the leading cause of death among persons below 60 years of age. It is a well-established belief that optimal treatment in the early phase after trauma has a major impact on mortality, and the implementation of specific educational programs for trauma care have been a widely adopted strategy aimed at… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Any age
Conditions the study is for
Traffic Accidents
How many people
40,000 participants
Where
1 siteSweden
Study dates
Jan 2011to Sep 2012
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages Any age
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child, Adult, Older adult

Study population: Study Population: Motor vehicle traffic crashes were selected using the causes of injury matrix developed by the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA.

Who may be able to join

  • Primary incident hospital admissions due to traffic accidents or
  • Death due to traffic accidents

Who cannot join

  • If a patient appears more than once, all but the first event will be excluded from the dataset.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

Sweden1 site
  • Uppsala University

    Uppsala, County of Uppsala, 754 05

Other trials in Sweden

About this study

Official title: Impact of Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) Training of Ambulance Caregivers on Outcome of Traffic Injury Victims

Trauma is the leading cause of death among persons below 60 years of age. It is a well-established belief that optimal treatment in the early phase after trauma has a major impact on mortality, and the implementation of specific educational programs for trauma care have been a widely adopted strategy aimed at improving the outcome. This strategy has high face validity, but the underlying evidence is poor. The Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) program was introduced in 1983 aiming to integrate prehospital trauma care with the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program. Approximately half a million prehospital caregivers in over 50 countries have taken the PHTLS course. It has been recognized as one of the leading educational programs for prehospital emergency trauma care. However, the scientific support for improved patient outcome from courses such as PHTLS and ATLS is limited. According to a Cochrane analysis published 2010 there is no evidence to recommend advanced life-support (ALS) training for ambulance crews. Another Cochrane analysis concerning ATLS gave similar results and a recent study indicated even worsened outcome after the implementation of ATLS. An observational study in the county of Uppsala indicated reduced mortality after the implementation of PHTLS but the estimate was uncertain due to a low overall mortality. The aim of this study is to further investigate the association between PHTLS training of ambulance crew members and the outcome in trauma patients in a larger study population. To accomplish this the investigators will use an epidemiological semi-individual design applied to all victims of traffic injury that occurred during the implementation period of the PHTLS course in Sweden (1998-2004). Four outcomes and subsets of patients will be analyzed: Mortality before hospital admission, mortality within 30 days, time to death among survivors to hospital admission and return to work among survivors to hospital discharge.

Read the detailed description

Source Population: Sweden is divided in 21 administrative regions providing health care (counties). In 2004 Sweden had a population of about 9 million inhabitants with an average population density of 20 inhabitants/km2.

The Emergency Medical Service (EMS)-System: The ambulance staff in Sweden consists of registered nurses and emergency medical technician (EMT) equivalents (nursing assistants with special ambulance training).

Statistics: Hierarchical random effects models will be used to model the binary outcomes. Cox proportional hazards models to analyze the time to event outcomes. The difference in mean predicted outcome between the PHTLS group and the non-PHTLS group will be used to estimate the absolute risk reduction.

Keywords
Traumatic injuries, Prehospital Trauma Life Support, Traffic accidents
Medical subject headings
Wounds and Injuries

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Study groups in NCT01603537
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
PHTLSThe exposure is defined from the dichotomization of the probability in each event/accident that at least one of the caring ambulance crew members was PHTLS certified.
No PHTLSNot exposed to PHTLS

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Mortality before hospital admission.

    Injury deaths not associated with a hospital admission.

    Measured: Patients will be followed up to death or at least one year after inclusion.

  2. Mortality within 30 days.

    Deaths within 30 days including all deaths, prehospital and hospital, up to 30 days from the injury event.

    Measured: Patients will be followed up to death or at least one year after inclusion.

  3. Time to death among survivors to hospital admission.

    Time to death among patients associated with a hospital admission.

    Measured: Patients will be followed up to death or at least one year after inclusion.

  4. Return to work among survivors to hospital discharge.

    Number of patients returned to work per time-unit of observation after the injury event among all patients discharged from hospital, not dead, and that was working before the accident.

    Measured: Patients will be followed up to occured event or at least one year after inclusion.

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted23 May 2012 (estimated)
  2. Study startJan 2011
  3. Primary completionMay 2012 (estimated)
  4. Study completionSep 2012 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Ecologic or community
Time perspective
Retrospective
Enrolment
40,000 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT01603537
Sponsor's protocol ID
Dnr 2007/264
Status last verified
May 2012
First submitted
15 May 2012
Last updated
23 May 2012
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No

Publications

  • Krug EG, Sharma GK, Lozano R. The global burden of injuries. Am J Public Health. 2000 Apr;90(4):523-6. doi: 10.2105/ajph.90.4.523.

    PubMed 10754963
  • Trunkey DD, Lim RC Jr, Blaisdell FW. Traumatic injury. A health care crisis. West J Med. 1974 Jan;120(1):92-4. No abstract available.

    PubMed 4812216
  • Collicott PE, Hughes I. Training in advanced trauma life support. JAMA. 1980 Mar 21;243(11):1156-9.

    PubMed 7359667
  • Jayaraman S, Sethi D. Advanced trauma life support training for ambulance crews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010 Jan 20;(1):CD003109. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003109.pub2.

    PubMed 20091538
  • Jayaraman S, Sethi D. Advanced trauma life support training for hospital staff. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Apr 15;(2):CD004173. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD004173.pub3.

    PubMed 19370594
  • Drimousis PG, Theodorou D, Toutouzas K, Stergiopoulos S, Delicha EM, Giannopoulos P, Larentzakis A, Katsaragakis S. Advanced Trauma Life Support certified physicians in a non trauma system setting: is it enough? Resuscitation. 2011 Feb;82(2):180-4. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2010.10.005. Epub 2010 Nov 30.

    PubMed 21122975
  • Johansson J, Blomberg H, Svennblad B, Wernroth L, Melhus H, Byberg L, Michaelsson K, Karlsten R, Gedeborg R. Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) training of ambulance caregivers and impact on survival of trauma victims. Resuscitation. 2012 Oct;83(10):1259-64. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2012.02.018. Epub 2012 Feb 23.

    PubMed 22366502
  • Recommended framework for presenting injury mortality data. MMWR Recomm Rep. 1997 Aug 29;46(RR-14):1-30.

    PubMed 9301976

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Traffic Accidents, run by Uppsala University Hospital at 1 site in Sweden.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 2 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: status not confirmed, as of the sponsor's last update on 23 May 2012. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Sweden. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Results are not available in the source record.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Mortality before hospital admission. (time frame: Patients will be followed up to death or at least one year after inclusion.). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT01603537, which also lists 8 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 23 May 2012.

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