Management of spinal trauma patients: a national survey in The Netherlands

Lack of consensus in spinal trauma management and differences in the practical organization between trauma regions can have significant consequences on the fate of patients with spine trauma. For this reason a national survey was conducted among the 11 trauma regions in the Netherlands. Representative surgeons were sent a survery on seven areas of spinal trauma management: treatment protocol, (2) referral, (3) advisory committee, (4) classification used, (5) responsible medical specialist, (6) timing of surgical intervention, and (7) the current view on spinal trauma care. All 11 centers completed the survey yielding a response rate of 100%. The results of this study shows that in a relative small country, all seven areas in the management of spine trauma differs substantially and can be of use to show the possible areas of discrepancies between trauma centers in comparable European countries.