Trauma Deaths (trauma + death)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Penetrating injuries in children: Is there a message?

JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 5 2002
AJA Holland
Objectives: To determine the frequency, management and outcome of penetrating trauma in children. Methods: A retrospective review of penetrating injuries in children under 16 years of age admitted to the Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW), and deaths reported to the New South Wales Paediatric Trauma Death (NPTD) Registry, from January 1988 to December 2000. Patient details, circumstances of trauma, injuries identified, management and outcome were recorded. Results: Thirty-four children were admitted to the CHW with penetrating injuries during the 13-year period. This represented 0.2% of all trauma admissions, but 3% of those children with major trauma. The injury typically involved a male, school-age child that fell onto a sharp object or was assaulted with a knife or firearm by a parent or person known to them. Twenty-five children (75%) required operative intervention for their injuries and 14 survivors (42%) suffered long-term morbidity. Thirty children were reported to the NPTD Registry over the same interval, accounting for 2.3% of all trauma deaths in New South Wales. Of these, a significant minority was injured by falls from a mower or a tractor towing a machine with blades. Conclusions: Penetrating injuries are uncommon, but cause serious injury in children. There are two clear groups: (i) those dead at the scene or moribund on arrival, in whom prevention must be the main aim; and (ii) those with stable vital signs. Penetrating wounds should be explored in the operating theatre to exclude major injury. Young children should not ride on mowers or tractors. [source]


Triage and mortality in 2875 consecutive trauma patients

ACTA ANAESTHESIOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2010
R. MEISLER
Background: Most studies on trauma and trauma systems have been conducted in the United States. We aimed to describe the factors predicting mortality in European trauma patients, with focus on triage. Methods: We prospectively registered all trauma patients in Eastern Denmark over 12 consecutive months. We analysed the flow of trauma patients through the system, the time spent at different locations, and we assessed the risk factors of mortality. Results: We included 2875 trauma patients, of whom 158 (5.5%) died before arrival at the hospital. Most patients (75.3%) were brought to local hospitals and patients primarily (n=82) or secondarily triaged (n=203) to the level I trauma centre were the most severely injured. Secondarily transferred patients spent a median of 150 min in the local hospital before transfer to the level I trauma centre and 48 min on transportation. Severe injury with an injury severity score >15 was seen in 345 patients, of whom 118 stayed at the local hospital. They had a significantly higher mortality than 116 of those secondarily transferred [45/118, 38.1% vs. 11/116, 9.7% (P<0.0001)]. Mortality within 30 days was 4.3% in admitted patients, and significant risk factors of death were violence [odds ratio (OR)=5.72], unconsciousness (OR=4.87), hypotension (OR=4.96), injury severity score >15 (OR=27.42), and age. Conclusions: Around 50% of all trauma deaths occurred at the scene. Increased survival of severely injured patients may be achieved by early transfer to highly specialised care. [source]


Penetrating injuries in children: Is there a message?

JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 5 2002
AJA Holland
Objectives: To determine the frequency, management and outcome of penetrating trauma in children. Methods: A retrospective review of penetrating injuries in children under 16 years of age admitted to the Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW), and deaths reported to the New South Wales Paediatric Trauma Death (NPTD) Registry, from January 1988 to December 2000. Patient details, circumstances of trauma, injuries identified, management and outcome were recorded. Results: Thirty-four children were admitted to the CHW with penetrating injuries during the 13-year period. This represented 0.2% of all trauma admissions, but 3% of those children with major trauma. The injury typically involved a male, school-age child that fell onto a sharp object or was assaulted with a knife or firearm by a parent or person known to them. Twenty-five children (75%) required operative intervention for their injuries and 14 survivors (42%) suffered long-term morbidity. Thirty children were reported to the NPTD Registry over the same interval, accounting for 2.3% of all trauma deaths in New South Wales. Of these, a significant minority was injured by falls from a mower or a tractor towing a machine with blades. Conclusions: Penetrating injuries are uncommon, but cause serious injury in children. There are two clear groups: (i) those dead at the scene or moribund on arrival, in whom prevention must be the main aim; and (ii) those with stable vital signs. Penetrating wounds should be explored in the operating theatre to exclude major injury. Young children should not ride on mowers or tractors. [source]


Preclinical Studies with Adrenomedullin and Its Binding Protein as Cardiovascular Protective Agents for Hemorrhagic Shock

CARDIOVASCULAR THERAPEUTICS, Issue 3-4 2006
Rongqian Wu
ABSTRACT Traumatic injury is a major, largely unrecognized public health problem in the US that cuts across race, gender, age, and economic boundaries. The resulting loss of productive life years exceeds that of any other disease, with societal costs of $469 billion annually. Most trauma deaths result either from insufficient tissue perfusion due to excessive blood loss, or the development of inflammation, infection, and vital organ damage following resuscitation. Clinical management of hemorrhagic shock relies on massive and rapid infusion of fluids to maintain blood pressure. However, the majority of victims with severe blood loss do not respond well to fluid restoration. The development of effective strategies for resuscitation of traumatic blood loss is therefore critically needed. We have recently discovered that the vascular responsiveness to a recently-discovered potent vasodilatory peptide, adrenomedullin (AM) is depressed after severe blood loss, which may be due to downregulation of a novel specific binding protein, AM binding protein-1 (AMBP-1). Using three different animal models of hemorrhage (controlled hemorrhage with large volume resuscitation, controlled hemorrhage with low volume resuscitation, and uncontrolled hemorrhage with minimum resuscitation), we have shown that cell and organ injury occurs after hemorrhage despite fluid resuscitation. Administration of AM/AMBP-1 significantly improves cardiac output, heart performance and tissue perfusion, attenuates hepatic and renal injury, decreases pro-inflammatory cytokines, prevents metabolic acidosis, and reduces hemorrhage-induced mortality. Thus, administration of AM/AMBP-1 appears to be a novel and useful approach for restoring cardiovascular responses, preventing organ injury, and reducing mortality after hemorrhagic shock. [source]


Bayesian Logistic Injury Severity Score: A Method for Predicting Mortality Using International Classification of Disease-9 Codes

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 5 2008
Randall S. Burd MD
Abstract Objectives:, Owing to the large number of injury International Classification of Disease-9 revision (ICD-9) codes, it is not feasible to use standard regression methods to estimate the independent risk of death for each injury code. Bayesian logistic regression is a method that can select among a large numbers of predictors without loss of model performance. The purpose of this study was to develop a model for predicting in-hospital trauma deaths based on this method and to compare its performance with the ICD-9,based Injury Severity Score (ICISS). Methods:, The authors used Bayesian logistic regression to train and test models for predicting mortality based on injury ICD-9 codes (2,210 codes) and injury codes with two-way interactions (243,037 codes and interactions) using data from the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB). They evaluated discrimination using area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) and calibration with the Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) h-statistic. The authors compared performance of these models with one developed using ICISS. Results:, The discrimination of a model developed using individual ICD-9 codes was similar to that of a model developed using individual codes and their interactions (AUC = 0.888 vs. 0.892). Inclusion of injury interactions, however, improved model calibration (HL h-statistic = 2,737 vs. 1,347). A model based on ICISS had similar discrimination (AUC = .855) but showed worse calibration (HL h-statistic = 45,237) than those based on regression. Conclusions:, A model that incorporates injury interactions had better predictive performance than one based only on individual injuries. A regression approach to predicting injury mortality based on injury ICD-9 codes yields models with better predictive performance than ICISS. [source]