Blood loss and uncontrollable bleeding are major factors affecting survival in trauma patients. Because treatment with antifibrinolytic drugs may be effective, early detection of hyperfibrinolysis with rotation thrombelastography (ROTEM®) may be beneficial. Eighty-seven trauma patients were included in this prospective observational study. Blood samples were collected at admission. After in vitro activation with tissue factor (EXTEM) and inhibition with aprotinin (APTEM), ROTEM® parameters including maximal clot firmness (MCF) and clot lysis index at 30 min (CLI30) were determined. Hyperfibrinolysis was defined as a euglobulin lysis time (ELT) <90 min. Threshold for ROTEM® parameters were determined with receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC) analysis according to the ELT results. ELT was determined in a subgroup of 23 patients. In this group of patients, ROC analysis showed that for a threshold of 18 mm (MCF-EXTEM), 71% (CLI30) and 7% (increase of MCF-APTEM), sensitivity was, respectively, 100%, 75%, and 80% with a specificity of 100%. With the application of these thresholds to the whole trauma cohort, ROTEM® analysis detected hyperfibrinolysis in five patients [6%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2–13%]. As expected, patients with hyperfibrinolysis were more severely injured (median Injury Severity Score: 75 vs 20, P<0.05), had greater coagulation abnormalities [international normalized ratio (INR): 8.2 vs 1.3, P<0.05; fibrinogen: 0.0 vs 2.2 g litre−1, P<0.05], and a higher mortality rate (100%, CI: 48–100% vs 11% CI: 5–20%, P<0.05). ROTEM® provided rapid and accurate detection of hyperfibrinolysis in severely injured trauma patients.