Barts Health NHS Trust has seen a 40% reduction in deaths in the number of victims of major trauma who die due to severe bleeding.
The number of deaths from severe bleeding after major trauma at The Royal London Hospital have fallen from 47 per cent to 27 per cent thanks to a programme led by Queen Mary University of London, Barts Health NHS Trust and NHS Blood and Transplant. The study reporting the findings has recently been published in Annals of Surgery.
Researchers examined the outcomes of 1169 critically bleeding trauma patients who were managed with a ‘major haemorrhage protocol’ at The Royal London Hospital Major Trauma Centre between 2008 and 2017. The hospital is one of London’s four major trauma centres and treats about 150 “code red” severely bleeding patients a year. This “Code Red” protocol was developed over time and involved new approaches to diagnosis and treatment of trauma-induced problems with blood clotting. These were introduced as a result of research conducted by the Centre for Trauma Sciences at Queen Mary and its partners.
During this time a trauma research team worked alongside the clinical trauma team 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This joint working led to dramatic changes in resuscitation practice. Trauma teams stopped giving clear fluid infusions to patients while they were bleeding, instead using only red blood cell transfusions and clotting components derived from blood (such as plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate transfusions). This included delivering blood to patients even before they reached hospital.
New devices to diagnose clotting problems at the patient bedside were introduced, allowing patient care to be individualised in real time. The clinical teams also introduced many human factor changes to smooth the delivery of life saving therapies and operation.
With all these changes, patients’ clotting problems could be managed and bleeding could be controlled. The overall number of red blood cell transfusions required by each patient fell significantly over the decade, from an average of 12 units in the first 24 hours in 2008, to only four units in 2017. The number of patients who required a ‘massive’ transfusion (10 or more units of red blood cell transfusions – essentially replacing their entire blood volume) fell by more than half, from 68% in 2008 to 33% in 2017.
Co-author Professor Karim Brohi, Consultant Trauma Surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, Professor of Trauma Sciences at Queen Mary University of London and Director of the London Trauma System, said: “Over ten years clinical and research trauma teams have worked hand-in-hand to understand what happens in the first few minutes after injury and how we can stop patients bleeding to death. We have reduced deaths by nearly a half, which is an incredible achievement in such a short period of time. There are still many opportunities to improve survival and this study also shows us where we need to focus our attention for the future.”
Dr Elaine Cole, from Queen Mary University of London, the study’s lead author said: “Changes in transfusion and resuscitation practice for traumatically injured patients that are rooted in research have led to remarkable improvements in survival. Close collaboration between clinical, transfusion and research teams enabled incremental adaptation of the Code Red protocol over time, rapidly implementing new research findings into clinical care.”
Jackie Sullivan, Chief Executive of The Royal London Hospital, said: “Since our foundation in 1740, The Royal London has always been at the forefront of injury care. Our major trauma centre is a core part of what we are, and it is fantastic to see how our dedication to high quality trauma care, and embedding research at the heart of the hospital, has led to such amazing improvements in survival.”
