AB212. SOH22ABS193. Establishing a trauma database at the national maxillofacial unit

Background: Facial trauma can result in disabling injuries which require complex surgical care to restore function. The National Maxillofacial Surgery Unit receives a high throughput of these injuries from a wide referral base encompassing referrals from primary care, secondary and tertiary care centres across approximately eighteen institutions within Ireland. An accurate database is essential as it informs strategic planning, manpower requirements and resource allocations as well as facilitating compliance with clinical governance, audit and research. We present our experience in establishing a prospective maxillofacial trauma database (MTD) and initial results over a three-month period.

Methods: In September 2021 we instituted a clinician led data collection process for all acute trauma patients presenting to the daily trauma clinic and also all consultations through our emergency department. Using a preformatted standardised template this data is populated in a contemporaneous, prospective manner. Cross-referencing of data entries with hospital patient registration information is utilised to validate the accuracy of the database.

Results: A total of 433 patient encounters have been recorded since the institution of this MTD, with 140 patients admitted for surgical management (32% admission rate). The average length of stay is 3.2 days and average wait time for theatre access after admission is 1.4 days. The accuracy of the database is 98.7%, with 97% completeness.

Conclusions: Prospective databases provide powerful information about patients’ clinical data, surgical management and capture clinical activity in trauma units. The preliminary experience with establishing a MTD has yielded positive results and proven to be accurate, complete and feasible.

Keywords: Database; facial injury; informatics; maxillofacial; trauma