J Trauma
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Comparative Study
Accidental and intentional perpetration of serious injury or death: correlates and relationship to trauma exposure.
The pernicious individual and societal effects of exposure to violence highlight the importance of understanding factors related to trauma perpetration. Little research has investigated the phenomenon of accidental perpetration of serious injury and death, or considered the relationship between perpetration and trauma exposure. ⋯ Findings suggest that accidental, as well as intentional, perpetration of serious injury or death frequently occurs in the context of trauma and violence. Both types of perpetration are related to psychopathology. Potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between trauma exposure, psychopathology, and perpetration are discussed. Further research is needed to elucidate pathways from trauma exposure to perpetration and mental disorder.
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Comparative Study
Long-term comparison of a routine laboratory parameter-based severity score with APACHE II and SAPS II.
Risk score models predicting mortality have tremendous value, but because of the additional effort involved, their clinical use remains low. The aim of this study is to compare three different scores that each requires different levels of effort during admission and throughout treatment: the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II), and the Dense Laboratory Whole Blood Applied Risk Estimation (DELAWARE) score. Of the three, only the DELAWARE is based solely on routine laboratory parameters. ⋯ The routine laboratory-based DELAWARE provides a reliable, valid risk assessment of the surgical intensive care patient at admission. It also provides additional information without added effort or poor interobserver reliability, which leads to better data comparability. We have to state that until now the data have been collected in a single-center and their general validity is therefore limited. By the end of treatment, the SAPS II and APACHE II had increased discriminatory ability and are therefore useful as process parameters.