Injury最新文献

Background: An abnormal shock index (SI) is associated with greater injury severity among children with trauma. We sought to empirically-derive age-adjusted SI cutpoints associated with major trauma in children, and to compare the accuracy of these cutpoints to existing criteria for pediatric SI.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using the 2021 National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) Participant Use File. We included injured children (<18 years), excluding patients with traumatic arrests, mechanical ventilation upon hospital presentation, and inter-facility transfers. Our outcome was major trauma defined by the standardized triage assessment tool (STAT) criteria. Our exposure of interest was the SI. We empirically-derived upper and lower cutpoints for the SI using age-adjusted Z-scores. We compared the performance of these to the SI, pediatric-adjusted (SIPA), and the Pediatric SI (PSI). We validated the performance of the cutpoints in the 2019 NTDB.

Results: We included 64,326 and 64,316 children in the derivation and validation samples, of whom 4.9 % (derivation) and 4.0 % (validation) experienced major trauma. The empirically-derived age-adjusted SI cutpoints had a sensitivity of 43.2 % and a specificity of 79.4 % for major trauma in the validation sample. The sensitivity of the PSI for major trauma was 33.9 %, with a specificity of 90.7 % among children 1-17 years of age. The sensitivity of the SIPA was 37.4 %, with a specificity of 87.8 % among children 4-16 years of age. Evaluated using logistic regression, patients with an elevated age-adjusted SI had 3.97 greater odds (95 % confidence interval [CI] 3.63-4.33) of major trauma compared to those with a normal age-adjusted SI. Patients with a depressed SI had 1.55 greater odds (95 % CI 1.36-1.78) of major trauma. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) for the empirically-derived model (0.62, 95 % CI 0.61-0.63) was similar to the AUROC for PSI (0.62, 95 % CI 0.61-0.63); both of which were greater than the SIPA model (0.58, 95 % CI 0.57-0.59).

Conclusion: Age-adjusted SI cutpoints demonstrated a mild gain in sensitivity compared to existing measures. However, our findings suggest that the SI alone has a limited role in the identification of major trauma in children.

Background: There is a global surge in blast injuries, which are associated with high morbidity and mortality. To our knowledge, there are no guidelines for the management of blast injuries in the trauma bay.

Methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study utilized data on all patients admitted to our emergency department (ED) with terror- or combat-related injuries between October 7, 2023 (Gaza Iron Swords War onset) and February 4, 2024. The primary outcome was trauma severity indicated by either an injury severity score (ISS) >15 and/or need for acute care. We also analyzed the mechanisms of injuries, focusing on those resulting from blasts.

Results: Of 208 patients who were admitted following terror-and combat related injuries, 109 patients (101 males [93 %], median age 24.0 years) were admitted following blast injuries. Of them, 88 % were military personnel and 12 % were civilians, with a median ISS of 8 [IQR:4.0-17.0]. The level of trauma was severe in 48 patients (44 %). Tertiary sub-category of blast injuries (P =0.004), chest (P =0.032), abdomen (P =0.018), and lower extremities (P =0.044) injuries were significantly associated with severe trauma. Blast injuries mandated the urgent availability of specialist personnel and appropriate equipment to contend with multiple life-threatening sequelae of exposure to blasts upon the arrival of the victims to emergency services.

Conclusion: Blast injuries present unique challenges in management and demand a multidisciplinary approach and specialized resources. We present an algorithm for terror- and combat-related blast injuries treated in our trauma bay. The step-by-step procedures may be applicable to any blast injury sustained under variable conditions.

Fracture-related infections are significant postoperative complications that carry substantial patient burden and additional healthcare costs. Despite their impact on outcome, early diagnosis of these infections remains challenging due to current available tests lacking acceptable diagnostic parameters. This review compiles existing information on blood-based biomarkers that have been evaluated as early diagnostic tools and highlights the challenges in their reliability. To begin to overcome these challenges new avenues of biomarker discovery utilizing "omics" technologies and novel analytical methods are being investigated in recent years. It appears that, despite their complexity, these newer approaches may be the future in biomarker discovery for fracture-related infection diagnosis.

While this study sheds light on the valuable clinical outcomes regarding the use of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) in managing traumatic hemopericardium, I would like to emphasize a few critical areas that would improve the study's findings.