[Management of cranial-injured patients in the era of the Emergency Medical Service and the scanner. Comparative epidemiologic study with a 12-year interval in the same department of neurosurgery, in the Paris region].

The authors present an analysis of the different data concerning the emergencies admitted in the Neurosurgical department of Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, during the one year-period extending from 1st June 1983 to 1st June 1984. These data have been compared to the corresponding findings established during 1972 in the same department. Traumatology appears to be a more and more limited activity among neurosurgical emergencies: 55% of admissions in 1972, 43% in 1983-84. The main characteristics of injured patients on admission have not changed: 65% are in a coma, 1.25 are operated in emergency, age distribution and types of lesion are identical. The sorting of the patients has improved: 25% of them were operated upon in 1972, 37% in 1983-84. Conveyance of injured patients has undoubtedly improved in quality during the last years; yet the duration of transport is still important, too important, even in Paris: 2 h 30 as an average-time. Another favorable factor has been the coming out of CT-Scan; it is of course of great help for diagnosis, but it must not let forget basic and fundamental therapeutic decisions.