Scand J Trauma Resus
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2012
ReviewCritical care considerations in the management of the trauma patient following initial resuscitation.
Care of the polytrauma patient does not end in the operating room or resuscitation bay. The patient presenting to the intensive care unit following initial resuscitation and damage control surgery may be far from stable with ongoing hemorrhage, resuscitation needs, and injuries still requiring definitive repair. The intensive care physician must understand the respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immunologic consequences of trauma resuscitation and massive transfusion in order to evaluate and adjust the ongoing resuscitative needs of the patient and address potential complications. In this review, we address ongoing resuscitation in the intensive care unit along with potential complications in the trauma patient after initial resuscitation. Complications such as abdominal compartment syndrome, transfusion related patterns of acute lung injury and metabolic consequences subsequent to post-trauma resuscitation are presented. ⋯ Polytrauma patients with severe shock from hemorrhage and massive tissue injury present major challenges for management and resuscitation in the intensive care setting. Many of the current recommendations for "damage control resuscitation" including the use of fixed ratios in the treatment of trauma induced coagulopathy remain controversial. A lack of large, randomized, controlled trials leaves most recommendations at the level of consensus, expert opinion. Ongoing trials and improvements in monitoring and resuscitation technologies will further influence how we manage these complex and challenging patients.
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Drowning is a major source of mortality and morbidity in children worldwide. Neurocognitive outcome of children after drowning incidents cannot be accurately predicted in the early course of treatment. Therefore, aggressive out-of-hospital and in-hospital treatment is emphasized. ⋯ The used outcome measurement methods and the duration of follow-up have not been optimal in most of the existing studies. Proper neurological and neurophysiological examinations for drowned children are superior to outcome scales based chart reviews. There is evidence that gross neurological examination at the time of discharge from the hospital in young children does not reveal all the possible sequelae related to hypoxic brain injury and thus long-term follow-up of drowned resuscitated children is strongly recommended.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyAn observational study of compliance with the Scandinavian guidelines for management of minimal, mild and moderate head injury.
The Scandinavian guidelines for management of minimal, mild and moderate head injuries were developed to provide safe and cost effective assessment of head injured patients. In a previous study conducted one year after publication and implementation of the guidelines (2003), we showed low compliance, involving over-triage with computed tomography (CT) and hospital admissions. The aim of the present study was to investigate guideline compliance after an educational intervention. ⋯ This study shows higher guideline compliance after an educational intervention involving feed-back on performance. A substantial number of patients are exposed to over-triage, involving unnecessary radiation from CT examinations, and unnecessary costs from hospital admissions.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyBlood sample tube transporting system versus point of care technology in an emergency department; effect on time from collection to reporting? A randomised trial.
Time is a crucial factor in an emergency department and the effectiveness of diagnosing depends on, among other things, the accessibility of rapid reported laboratory test results; i.e.: a short turnaround time (TAT). Former studies have shown a reduced time to action when point of care technologies (POCT) are used in emergency departments. This study assesses the hypothesis, that using Point of Care Technology in analysing blood samples versus tube transporting blood samples for laboratory analyses results in shorter time from the blood sample is collected to the result is reported in an emergency department. ⋯ We found a significantly reduced time from collecting to reporting using Point of Care Technology (POCT) in an emergency department compared to tube transported blood samples for central laboratory analyses.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2012
ReviewIncidence, predisposing factors, management and survival following cardiac arrest due to subarachnoid haemorrhage: a review of the literature.
The prevalence of cardiac arrest among patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage [SAH], and the prevalence of SAH as the cause following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest [OHCA] or in-hospital cardiac arrest [IHCA] is unknown. In addition it is unclear whether cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] and post-resuscitation care management differs, and to what extent this will lead to meaningful survival following cardiac arrest [CA] due to SAH. ⋯ Cardiac arrest is a fairly common complication following severe SAH and these patients are encountered both in the pre-hospital and in-hospital setting. Survival is possible if the arrest occurs in the hospital and the latency to ROSC is short. In OHCA the outcome seems to be uniformly poor despite initially successful resuscitation.