Injury
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Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of mortality and long-term morbidity, particularly affecting young people. With our best therapies, one half of the patients with severe traumatic brain injury are never capable of living independently. ⋯ Despite the recent guidelines and publications recommending these interventions, critical care clinicians should be conservative towards implementing these therapies outside clinical trials due to substantial efficacy and safety concerns. Nevertheless the high morbidity and mortality associated with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) demands that we investigate the safety and efficacy of these promising potential therapies as a matter of urgency.
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To establish whether total parenteral nutrition (TPN) for ventilated trauma victims is associated with late-onset acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) independent of ventilation and transfusion parameters. ⋯ TPN administration is independently associated with late ARDS, and its use among critically ill trauma victims should be carefully scrutinised.
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While mandatory surgery for all thoracoabdominal penetrating injuries is advocated by some, the high rate of unnecessary operations challenges this approach. However, the consequences of intrathoracic bile remains poorly investigated. We sought to evaluate the outcome of patients who underwent non-operative management of right side thoracoabdominal (RST) penetrating trauma, and the levels of bilirubin obtained from those patients' chest tube effluent. ⋯ Non-operative management of RST penetrating trauma appears to be safe. Bile originating from the liver injury reaches the right thoracic cavity but does not reflect the severity of that injury. The highest concentration was found in the patient failing non-operative management. The presence of intrathoracic bile in selected patients who sustain RST penetrating trauma, with liver injury, does not preclude non-operative management. Our study suggests that monitoring chest tube effluent bilirubin may provide helpful information when managing a patient non-operatively.
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To determine predictive factors of mortality among children after traumatic brain injury. ⋯ In Tunisia, head injury is a frequent cause of hospital admission and is most often due to road traffic accidents. Short-term prognosis is poor, with a high mortality rate (24.3%), and is influenced by demographic, clinical, radiological and biological factors.
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Posttraumatic systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), sepsis and their subsequent complication, the multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), remain major complications following polytrauma. This prospective clinical study aimed at evaluating the association between these and plasma interleukin-18 (IL-18) and neopterin levels. ⋯ Determinations of neopterin and IL-18 concentrations might represent early markers for posttraumatic complications such as MODS and sepsis. They might help to differentiate between SIRS and sepsis and thereby guide the timing of the surgery for polytrauma. Neopterin and IL-18 levels should be used together with the clinical status and other inflammatory markers (IL-6, IL-8, etc.) for prediction of posttraumatic complications.