The PROspective Observational Vascular Injury Trial (PROOVIT)

Evidence suggests that the rate of treatable vascular injury is increasing due to improved pre-hospital strategies. The increased rate of vascular trauma occurs in an era of increased sub-specialization, shifting training paradigms and the emergence of endovascular therapies. These factors, in combination with the baseline complexity of vascular trauma, make it particularly important that the management of this injury pattern be evidence-based. However, because all forms and distributions of vascular injury represent only 4% to 9% of trauma admissions, meaningful study of one injury pattern, patient population, therapeutic or surveillance strategy is difficult at a single institution. Further complicating such efforts is the fact that vascular trauma is managed by a wide range of surgical and now endovascular specialists, further fragmenting even a busy trauma institution's experience with vascular injury.