Injury
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The French army has been deployed in Mali since January 2013 with the Serval Operation and since July 2014 in the Sahel-Saharan Strip (SSS) with the Barkhane Operation where the distances (up to 1100km) can be very long. French Military Medical Service deploys an inclusive chain from the point of injury (POI) to hospital in France. A patient evacuation coordination cell (PECC) has been deployed since February 2013 to organise forward medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) in the area between the POI and three forward surgical units. The purpose of this work was to study the medical evacuation length and duration between the call for Medevac location accidents and forward surgical units (role 2) throughout the five million square kilometers French joint operation area. ⋯ Patient evacuation in such a large area is a logistic and human challenge. Despite this, Bravo and Charlie patients were evacuated in NATO recommended time frame. However, due to distance, Alpha patients time frame was longer than this recommended by NATO organisation. That's where French doctrine with forward medical teams embedded in the platoons is relevant to mitigate this distance and time frame challenge.
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Epidemiological studies have shown that bicycle trauma is associated with genitourinary (GU) injuries. Our objective is to characterize GU-related bicycle trauma admitted to a level I trauma center. ⋯ In a large series of bicycle trauma, GU organs were injured in 3% of cases. The majority of cases were managed non-operatively and mortality was low.
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Over the last decade the age of trauma patients and injury mortality has increased. At the same time, many centers have implemented multiple interventions focused on improved hemorrhage control, effectively resulting in a bleeding control bundle of care. The objective of our study was to analyze the temporal distribution of trauma-related deaths, the factors that characterize that distribution and how those factors have changed over time at our urban level 1 trauma center. ⋯ Over the same time frame of this study, increases in trauma death across the globe have been reported. This single-site study demonstrated a significant reduction in mortality, attributable to decreased hemorrhagic death. It is possible that efforts focused on hemorrhage control interventions (a bleeding control bundle) resulted in this reduction. These changing factors provide guidance on future prevention and intervention efforts.
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Healthcare-associated infections are a significant health burden, and hand hygiene (HH) is an essential prevention strategy. World Health Organization (WHO) 2009 guidelines recommend washing hands during five moments of patient care; 1)before touching a patient; 2)before a clean procedure; 3)after body fluid exposure; and 4)after touching a patient or 5)patient surroundings. HH opportunities at these 5 moments are frequent and compliance is low (22-60%). Infection risk is particularly high in trauma patients, and HH compliance during active trauma resuscitation has yet to be evaluated. ⋯ HH opportunities are frequent and compliance with WHO HH guidelines may be infeasible, requiring significant amounts of time that may be better spent with the patient during the golden hour of trauma resuscitation. In an era where more scrutiny is being applied to patient safety, particularly the prevention of inpatient infections, more research is needed to identify alternative strategies (e.g. glove use, prioritizing moments) that may more effectively promote compliance in this setting.
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The Kampala Trauma Score (KTS) has been proposed as a triage tool for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to examine the diagnostic accuracy of KTS in predicting emergency department outcomes using timely injury estimation with Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) score and physician opinion to calculate KTS scores. ⋯ KTS predicted mortality and need for admission from the ED well when early estimation of the number of serious injuries was used, regardless of method (i.e. AIS criteria or physician opinion). This study provides evidence for KTS to be used as a practical and valid triage tool to predict patient prognosis, ED outcomes and inform referral decision-making from first- or second-level hospitals in LMICs.