• J Trauma · Nov 2010

    Comparative Study

    Complications in multitrauma patients in a Dutch level 1 trauma center.

    • Teun P Saltzherr, Annelies Visser, Kees J Ponsen, Jan S Luitse, and J Carel Goslings.
    • Trauma Unit Department of Surgery, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. t.p.saltzherr@amc.nl
    • J Trauma. 2010 Nov 1; 69 (5): 1143-6.

    BackgroundComplication registration is an important part of monitoring the quality of health care. The aim of this article was to describe the incidence, type, and impact of complications occurring within 6 months after the initial trauma in multitrauma patients.MethodsDuring a 2-year period, all trauma patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 16 who were not directly transferred to other hospitals were included. We used the Dutch National Surgical Complication Registry of the Academic Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center, to assess complications within 6 months after the initial trauma. For verification, we additionally performed a chart review. Complications were graded 0 (no real health loss) to 4 (lethal).ResultsThree hundred three multitrauma patients were included with a median ISS of 22 (interquartile range, 17-29). Within 181 patients, 358 complications occurred (60%). The most frequently occurring complications were respiratory and urinary tract infections. Most complications (73%) were grade 1 and resolved completely without operative (re-)intervention There were 27 patients (8%) with a grade 2 complication, which required operative (re-)interventions. All eight (2%) grade 3 complications which caused (potential) permanent damage or disability, were of neurologic origin. Overall mortality was 18.8% and complication associated readmission rate was 4%. Emergency interventions and high ISS tended to be associated with the occurrence of complications. In patients with complications, hospital stay was doubled from 9 to 18 days.ConclusionsMultitrauma patients are at high risk for developing complications. Most frequently encountered complications were infections. The majority of complications resolved completely without a surgical intervention.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…