• Gail T Tominaga, George Garcia, Alex Dzierba, and Jan Wong.
• Department of Surgery, The Queen's Medical Center, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA. gtominaga@queens.org
• Arch Surg Chicago. 2004 Aug 1;139(8):844-7.

HypothesisMethamphetamine use affects length of hospital stay in the minimally injured patient.DesignCase series.SettingThe only tertiary trauma center serving Hawaii.PatientsTrauma patients examined during a 12-month period with an Injury Severity Score of 1 to 5 and an age of 18 to 55 years undergoing urine toxicology screen for suspected suicide attempt or altered sensorium.Main Outcome MeasuresPresence or absence of amphetamine or methamphetamine on urine toxicology screen, intention of injury, hospital admission rate, length of stay, and hospital charges.ResultsDuring the study period, 1650 trauma patients were examined, with 544 meeting study criteria. Urine toxicology screens were performed in 212 patients, with 57 positive and 155 negative for amphetamine or methamphetamine. There was no difference in sex (77% vs 73% male; P =.53), Injury Severity Score (3.2 for both groups), or total number of computed tomographic scans performed (mean +/- SEM, 3.0 +/- 0.3 vs 4.0 +/- 0.3; P =.07). Patients in the positive group were more likely to have intentional self-inflicted injury or intentional assaults than patients in the negative group (37% vs 22%; P =.04). The positive group was older than the negative group (33.6 +/- 1.3 vs 29.9 +/- 0.8 years; P =.02), had a significantly longer hospital stay (2.7 +/- 0.4 vs 1.7 +/- 0.1 days; P =.003), had significantly higher hospital charges (15 617 dollars +/- 1866 dollars vs 11 600 dollars +/- 648 dollars; P =.01), and was more likely admitted to the hospital (91% vs 70%; P =.001) despite the low Injury Severity Score.ConclusionMethamphetamine use results in trauma center resource utilization out of proportion to injury severity.

28 keywords...

hide…