Should pregnancy be a sole criterion for trauma code activation: a review of the trauma registry

BackgroundTrauma complicates 5% to 7% of all pregnancies and the majority are noncatastrophic events.MethodsAll pregnant patients in the trauma registry from April 2004 to December 2008 were reviewed retrospectively for trauma code activation criteria: pregnancy as sole criterion versus anatomic/physiologic criteria. The incidence of emergent cesarean sections also was assessed.ResultsThere were a total of 85 Level 2 Trauma activations. Fifty-seven of the 85 activations were for pregnancy only. There were 2 cesarean sections in the pregnancy-alone group and 5 cesarean sections in the anatomic/physiologic group. A Fisher exact test was used to compare the groups. The pregnancy-alone group had a significantly lower number of cesarean sections with a P value of .0364.ConclusionsPatients with pregnancy as the sole criterion for Level 2 activations had minor injuries and a lower incidence of cesarean sections.