Injury
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Literature has shown there are significant differences between administrative databases and clinical registry data. Our objective was to compare the identification of trauma patients using All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (APR-DRG) as compared to the Trauma Registry and estimate the effects of those discrepancies on utilization. ⋯ APR-DRGs appeared to only capture a fraction of the entire trauma population and it tends to be the more severely ill patients. As a result, the administrative data was not able to accurately answer hospital or operating room utilization as well as specific information on diagnosis categories regarding trauma patients. APR-DRG administrative data should not be used as the only data source for evaluating the needs of a trauma program.
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Comparative Study
Major incident triage: Derivation and comparative analysis of the Modified Physiological Triage Tool (MPTT).
Triage is a key principle in the effective management at a major incident. There are at least three different triage systems in use worldwide and previous attempts to validate them, have revealed limited sensitivity. Within a civilian adult population, there has been no work to develop an improved system. ⋯ The performance characteristics of the MPTT exceed existing major incident triage systems, whilst maintaining an appropriate rate of over-triage and minimising under-triage within the context of predicting the need for a life-saving intervention in a military setting. Further work is required to both prospectively validate this system and to identify its performance within a civilian environment, prior to recommending its use in the major incident setting.
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Comparative Study
Endovascular management for peripheral arterial trauma: The new norm?
Endovascular therapy is well studied in atraumatic conditions; and there appears to be a growing interest in its application to traumatic injuries. The objective of this study is to compare open and endovascular techniques in the management of peripheral arterial trauma. ⋯ Overall, endovascular and open techniques were not statistically different in early outcomes. Endovascular therapy appears to provide some advantage when it comes to: challenging anatomy, decreasing blood product utilization, and minimizing physiologic derangement. However, patients with injuries resulting in free hemorrhage or significant external blood loss may still be best served with open repair. Despite this, given the increasing use of endovascular techniques, close collaboration is needed between trauma and endovascular specialists to properly select the optimal management for patients with peripheral arterial trauma.
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Traumatic brain injury associated coagulopathy is frequent, either in isolated traumatic brain injury in civilian practice and in combat traumatic brain injury. In war zone, it is a matter of concern because head and neck are the second most frequent site of wartime casualty burden. Data focusing on transfusion requirements in patients with war related TBI coagulopathy are limited. ⋯ The results of this study support previous observations of coagulopathy as a frequent complication of traumatic brain injury. The majority of patients with war related penetrating traumatic brain injury presented with extracranial lesions. Most of them required a high level of transfusion capacity.
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The National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) criteria are used to assess the need for imaging to evaluate cervical spine integrity after injury. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of the NEXUS criteria in older blunt trauma patients. ⋯ Compared with the general adult blunt trauma population, the NEXUS criteria are less sensitive in excluding cervical spine fractures in older blunt trauma patients. We therefore suggest that liberal imaging be considered for older patients regardless of history or examination findings and that the addition of an age criterion to the NEXUS criteria be investigated in future studies.