Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Multicenter Study Observational Study
The association of trauma center transport and long-term functional outcomes in head-injured older adults transported by EMS.
It is unclear whether trauma center care is associated with improved outcomes in older adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared to management at nontrauma centers. Our primary objectives were to describe the long-term outcomes of older adults with TBI and to evaluate the association of trauma center transport with long-term functional outcome. ⋯ In older adults with TBI, moderate disability or worse is common 6 months after injury. Over one in five of older adults with TBI died by 6 months, usually due to nonhead causes. Patients with TBI or traumatic intracranial hemorrhage did not have improved functional outcomes with initial triage to a trauma center.
-
Our objectives were to test whether during a potentially life-threatening medical emergency, perceived threat (a patient's sense of life endangerment) in the emergency department (ED) is common and associated with the subsequent development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. ⋯ Perceived threat during potentially life-threatening emergencies is common and independently associated with development of PTSD symptoms. Additional research to test whether reduction of perceived threat in the ED attenuates the development of PTSD symptoms following potentially life-threatening emergencies is warranted.