Journal of the American College of Surgeons
The most recent articles from:
J. Am. Coll. Surg.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Dispelling Dogma: American Association for Surgery of Trauma Prospective, Multicenter Trial of Index vs Delayed Fasciotomy after Extremity Trauma.
Surgical dogma states that "if you think about doing a fasciotomy, you do it," yet the benefit of this approach remains unclear. We hypothesized that early fasciotomy during index operative procedures for extremity vascular trauma would be associated with improved patient outcomes. ⋯ Routine, index operation fasciotomy failed to demonstrate an outcome benefit in this prospective, multicenter analysis. Our data suggest that a careful observation and fasciotomy-when-needed approach may limit unnecessary surgery and its resulting morbidity in extremity vascular trauma patients.