Critical care clinics
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Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a severe and common complication of major trauma. The most important early management principle is to identify the inciting event and remove the ongoing insult aggressively. It is important to immediately resuscitate the patients and prepare them for a complex and difficult hospitalization. ⋯ Use of pulmonary toilet, including therapeutic bronchoscopy; patient positioning, including intermittent prone positioning, and recruitment maneuvers are useful therapeutic complements for maintaining functional residual capacity and decreasing shunt. Overall, ARDS represents a clear indication that the patient is failing to meet the demands of their stress and without prompt attention likely will die. It is a challenge and an opportunity to identify the underlying situation and to manage the patient while not causing additional harm as the patient's intrinsic resources can bring about the healing necessary to recover from the situation of extremis.
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In summary, the incidence of BCI following blunt thoracic trauma patients has been reported between 20% and 76%, and no gold standard exists to diagnose BCI. Diagnostic tests should be limited to identify those patients who are at risk of developing cardiac complications as a result of BCI. Therapeutic interventions should be directed to treat the complications of BCI. Finally, the prognosis and outcome of BCI patients is encouraging
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Critical care clinics · Jan 2004
ReviewInitial management of pelvic and femoral fractures in the multiply injured patient.
The management of polytrauma patients is clinically challenging and requires a multi-disciplinary team approach. The immediate and definitive operative care of fractures represents the optimal treatment for polytrauma patients with orthopedic injuries. Early orthopedic intervention in long bone fractures and pelvic ring injuries has been shown to decrease pulmonary complications, improve hemodynamic stability, reduce ventilator time, and facilitate early patient mobilization. These factors decrease mortality and improve outcomes for patients with multiple injuries.
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For both SCI and TBI, physicians are unable to affect reversal of the cellular injuries suffered at the time of trauma directly. Unfortunately, understanding such processes is just on the horizon. ⋯ Aggressive and pre-emptive attention to the ABC(D)s with attention to the needs of the injured nervous system, appropriate monitoring in all patients, meticulous medical management, and prompt surgical intervention when indicated have made marked improvements in outcome, particularly in TBI. Focusing on the basics and strict attention to detail appear to be the major roles played in the care of CNS trauma.