Introduction.

Trauma is one of the main causes of mortality worldwide and represents a public health problem. In Latin America, and particularly in Colombia, few trauma registries have been successfully developed. The objective of this study is to describe the epidemiology of trauma at the Hospital Universitario of Santander in the first year of implementation of the institutional trauma registry.

Methods.

The Department of General Surgery of the Universidad Industrial of Santander, together with the Hospital Universitario of Santander, began the design of the trauma registry in 2020. All patients admitted to the hospital or who died in the emergency department were included. The implementation of the registry began on August 1, 2020, after carrying out a pilot test. Reports were automatically collected and exported to an unidentified electronic database.

Results.

3114 patients were evaluated (M: 31 years; men: 78.1%). The median pre-hospital time was three hours and the most frequent means of transport was self-admission (51.16%). The most frequent mechanism of trauma was penetrating trauma (41.81%), with the majority being injuries caused by a sharp weapon (24.92%). Blunt trauma occurred in 41.71% of the patients evaluated and 14.4% of the population was under the influence of psychoactive substances. The general surgery service was the most consulted (26.97%), followed by the plastic surgery service (21.8%). The median hospital stay was two days (Q1:0; Q3:4) and 75 patients (2.41%) died during their hospital stay.

Conclusion.

The trauma registry of our institution is presented as a favorable platform for the analysis of prehospital and institutional trauma care, and the development of improvement plans in this context. This registry constitutes a solid tool for the execution of new research projects in this area.

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