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The rich and diverse heritage of the management of vascular injuries in the 45 independent European countries prevents the authors from revealing a uniform picture of the European experience, but some trends are clearly emerging. In countries with a low incidence of penetrating trauma and increasing use of interventional vascular procedures, the proportion of iatrogenic vascular trauma exceeds 40% of all vascular injuries, whereas on other parts of the continent, armed conflicts are still a major cause of vascular trauma. National vascular registries, mostly in the Scandinavian countries, produce useful, nationwide data about vascular trauma and its management but suffer still from inadequate data collection. Despite a relatively low incidence of vascular trauma in most European countries, the results are satisfactory, probably in most cases because of active and early management by surgeons on call, whether with vascular training or not, treating all kinds of vascular surgical emergencies. In some countries, attempts at developing a trauma and emergency surgical specialty, including expertise in the management of vascular injuries, are on their way.

Objective: To record the current standards of management and education in trauma surgery in 12 geographically and socioeconomically diverse countries in Europe., Design: Questionnaire study., Setting: Teaching hospital, Austria., Intervention: Questionnaire sent to experts on trauma in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom., Main Outcome Measure: Comparison of management of patients before, during, and after admission to hospital, and opportunities for initial and in-service training., Results: Management of patients and opportunities for training varied considerably from country to country, ranging from an organised trauma service throughout with specialised training to a haphazard and variable service that depended more on individual hospitals, doctors and patients., Conclusions: Standardisation of management and training would be desirable, and should be possible at least in countries that are members of the European Union.