Outcomes after Severe Head Injury: A National Trauma Data Bank-Based Comparison of Level I and Level II Trauma Centers

Severely head-injured patients require significant resources across the continuum of care. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of the level of trauma center designation on the outcome of the severely head-injured patient. The National Trauma Data Bank between 2001 and 2006 (NTDB 6.2) was queried for all patients with isolated traumatic head injury and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) less than 9. Comparisons between Level I and Level II trauma centers were made reviewing hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit LOS, ventilator days, major complication rate (pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, lower extremity deep vein thrombosis), mortality, and discharge status. Chi-square and Student t tests were used to determine statistical significance defined as P < 0.05. There were 31,736 patients from 258 facilities who met the inclusion criteria during the study period. Level I trauma centers had approximately twice as many patients admissions as Level II centers. However, the severity of injuries and patients’ characteristics identified by the emergency department GCS as well as the probability of survival score showed no difference between Level I and Level II centers. The comparisons between Level I and Level II trauma centers shows that Level II centers are not inferior to Level I in terms of outcomes and complication rate. Level II trauma centers encounter patients with isolated complex head injury less often but with outcomes and complication rates comparable to that of Level I centers. The transport of head-injured patients should not bypass Level II in favor of Level I.