Time to evacuation of acute subdural and extradural haematoma: prospective study before and after implementation of a major trauma centre

Purpose: Patients with Extradural (EDH) and Acute Subdural Haematomas (ASDH) represent a subgroup of head-injured patients that gain the most from timely treatment. While treatment times for head injury overall improved since the introduction of Major Trauma Centres (MTCs), no data exists describing how the time to treatment of EDH and ASDH has changed. We, therefore, compared the evacuation of ASDH and EDH before and after the implementation of a major trauma network.Methods: Data was collected prospectively between 1 May 2006 to 31 May 2007 and 1 March 2014 to 31 March 2016. The study was carried out at University Hospital Southampton, designated MTC in 2012. Patients over 18 with ASDH or EDH requiring emergency surgery were included.Results: The median time (IQR) for decompression was 4.8h (3.9-6.6) in 2006-7 and 4.4h (3.4-5.9) in 2014-16, p = 0.386. The proportion treated within 4 hours was 32% in 2006-7, and 33% in 2014-16 (p = 1.000). Analysis showed a decrease in time for CT scan (p = 0.01) and acceptance by neurosurgery (p < 0.001). There were increases in time for transferring to hospital (p = 0.005), awaiting operating theatre (p = 0.005), and operative time (p = 0.018).Conclusions: Since the introduction of MTCs, there has been no significant reduction in time to treat this select group of patients despite reductions in time to treatment of most other trauma and head-injured patients. This may be because parts of the pathway have improved, but others haven't. It is also possible that while previously head injury was poorly served, resources were prioritised to this group so finding further gains is difficult.