Journal of emergencies, trauma, and shock
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J Emerg Trauma Shock · Jul 2012
Can glasgow score at discharge represent final outcome in severe head injury?
Patients with head injury continue to improve over time and a minimum follow-up of six months is considered necessary to evaluate outcome. However, this may be difficult to assess due to lack of follow-up. It is also well known that operated patients who return for cranioplasty usually have the best outcome. ⋯ In operated severe head injury patients significant number of patients (24% in our study) have excellent outcome. However, insignificant number of patients had further improvement to GOS 4 or 5 (good outcome) from the time of initial discharge. This suggests that due to lack of intensive rehabilitative facilities, GOS at discharge may be representative of final outcome in the vast majority of cases of severe head injury in developing countries like India.
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J Emerg Trauma Shock · Jul 2012
Utility of admission physiology in the surgical triage of isolated ballistic battlefield torso trauma.
An assessment of hemodynamic stability is central to surgical decision-making in the management of battlefield ballistic torso trauma (BBTT). ⋯ Shock index (SI) is a useful parameter for helping military surgeons triage BBTT, identifying patients requiring operative torso hemorrhage control. SI performance requires a normal physiological response to hypovolemia, and thus should always be considered in clinical context.
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To survey the literature on Pediatric Emergency Medical Services (PEMS) with an aim to focus its drawbacks and emphasize the means of improvement. ⋯ The appointments in PEMS should be regularized with specific qualifications, experience, and expertise in different areas. Responsibility of PEMS should not be left to pre-hospital care providers, who are non clinicians and lack proper education and training. Pediatricians should be adequately trained to play an active role in PEMS. Meetings should be convened to discuss the lapses and means of improvement. Networks of co-operation between pre-hospital providers and experts in the emergency department should be established.
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We present a 32-year-old male with ventricular septal defect (VSD) following blunt chest trauma. Traumatic VSD is a rare but potentially life-threatening injury, the severity, course and presentation of which are variable. While the diagnosis of myocardial injury may be challenging, cardiac troponins are useful as a screening and diagnostic test. ⋯ Children with traumatic VSDs had an increased mortality risk. Smaller lesions may be managed conservatively but should be followed up to detect late complications. In both groups elective repair was associated with a good outcome.
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An algorithm on the indications and timing for a surgical airway in emergency as such cannot be drawn due to the multiplicity of variables and the inapplicability in the context of life-threatening critical emergency, where human brain elaborates decisions better in cluster rather than in binary fashion. In particular, in emergency or urgent scenarios, there is no clear or established consensus as to specifically who should receive a tracheostomy as a life-saving procedure; and more importantly, when. ⋯ In literature, specific indications for emergency tracheostomy are scattered and are biased, partially comprehensive, not clearly described or not homogeneously gathered. The review highlights the indications and timing for an emergency surgical airway and gives recommendations on which surgical airway method to use in critical airway.