Snapshot of trauma laparotomy deaths in Queensland.

Background: Trauma remains the most frequent cause of death for patients under 35 years of age. Head injury and catastrophic haemorrhage account for the majority of early deaths. A trauma laparotomy is often necessary to arrest haemorrhage.

Methods: All patients who died in Queensland hospitals between 2011 and 2016 having had a trauma laparotomy were identified from the Queensland Audit of Surgical Mortality.

Results: About 69.0% of the 84 deaths were male with a median age of 47.6 years. About 64.3% of deaths occurred within the first 2 days following trauma. Mechanism of injury was typically road traffic accident (77.4%). Sixteen patients underwent a non-therapeutic laparotomy. Following peer-review, different management was recommended for only three patients.

Conclusion: This group of patients who died in the setting of a trauma laparotomy received high quality trauma care. Ongoing education is needed as some non-therapeutic laparotomies may be avoidable.