Issue 6 NEWSLETTER September 1999
160 patients

and rising!
WELCOME:
Dr. Naren Nathoo, Consultant Neurosurgeon, Wentworth Hospital, Durban, South Africa
and
Dr Véronique Laloë, Surgeon, Batticaloa General Hospital, Sri Lanka

Both hospitals now have approval to start randomising
International interest in CRASH
is growing at a tremendous rate, with neurosurgeons and emergency physicians from around the world applying to become collaborators. World-wide, we can look forward to collaboration from centres in: Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the UAE. Countries with centres that already have Ethics Committee approval include Czech Republic (currently our best recruiters), Italy, Slovak Republic, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and as of this week, Switzerland.		 Collaborators who received Ethics Committee approval this month include:

Marion Waters - Countess of Chester Hospital, Aaron Pennell - Princess Alexandra Hospital, Jonathan Wasserberg - Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Andrea Sauerland - University Hospital, Zurich. We look forward to the first randomised patients.

Stefan Trenkler, Reimann Hospital, Slovak Republic received Ethics Committee approval in August and has already started enrolling patients.

 
Completing Early Outcome Forms  Thank you all for returning the Early Outcome Forms so promptly. Most are complete, but there are some common problems:

Section 4 Outcome Please write in the date of death, transfer or discharge when providing patient outcome data. The only time we don't need a date is when the patient is still in hospital 14 days after injury.

Section 5 Management and Complications Even if the patient was not admitted to ICU, one box should be ticked for each item in this section. To ensure there is no confusion for our data managers, please tick 'No' when the patient did not have the treatment or complication.

Section 8 Reliable contact This should be either the next of kin or close friend of the patient who will be a reliable source if we cannot locate a patient in order to send the 6-month outcome postal questionnaire. It may prove to be difficult to locate some patients, so please try to obtain reliable contact details.

NOTE FROM NIN:  I've sent out ‘Recruitment Target Forms’ to all randomising centres. Centres vary in the number of head injuries they see so we need you to estimate your monthly recruitment. This will help us plan for drug supplies.

Feedback from the CRASH Trial Symposium, Brno September 99 will be in the October issue.

CRASH Trial Co-ordinator, Nin Ritchie

CRASH Co-ordinating Centre, FREEPOST LON 14211, LONDON WC1N 1BR

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7299 4684 Fax: + 44 (0)20 7299 4663 email: CRASH@lshtm.ac.uk

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