OBJECTIVE: To characterize deaths from trauma in a tertiary hospital and evaluate the quality of care provided to these victims. METHODS: This was a retrospective study in a referral center for trauma in the period of one year. Through the methodology Trauma Score - Injury Severity Score and the review of medical records, preventable, potentially avoidable and non-preventable deaths were identified and studied. RESULTS: Seventy-five patients were included in the study. There was a predominance of deaths in young, male victims of traffic accidents. The mean Revised Trauma Score, Injury Severity Score and Trauma Score - Injury Severity Score were 5.60, 30.7 and 62.2%, respectively. The rate of deaths considered avoidable was 61.3%, potentially avoidable, 24%, and unavoidable, 14.7%. CONCLUSION: The study sample had epidemiological features similar to other studies, except for the high rate of avoidable deaths and the high values of the Revised Trauma Score. There were difficulties in obtaining data from medical records, medical imaging and autopsy findings. The quality of care provided to trauma victims in the institution proved unsatisfactory because of problems in collecting and storing data.
Wounds and injuries; Multiple trauma; Trauma severity indices; Mortality; Quality of health care
