[Quality and economy--contradictory demands].

Polytrauma treatment (40-60,000,-[symbol: see text]) and trauma killed victims (750,000,-[symbol: see text]) are a severe economical problem. The data of the German Trauma Registry show a significant influence of arrival time of the emergency doctor and lethality. There is also a significant increase of the length of stay at the intensive unit in severe thoracic and abdominal trauma (AIS > 3). The analysis of the audit filter for quality management showed between 1999-2000 a decrease of the time till first CCT from 41 to 31 minutes and for the first thoracic X-ray from 20 to 16 minutes. The German Trauma Registry includes till now more than 10,000 polytraumatized patients. There is an increase of 110% between the years 1998 and 2000.