Thinking on trauma research

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Do trauma centers improve functional outcomes: a national trauma databank analysis?

BACKGROUND: The development of a tiered trauma care system has lead to improved survival for the critically injured. The question as to whether the increased survival associated with the establishment of tiered levels of trauma care is paralleled by an improved functional outcome has not, however, been addressed. METHODS: Multivariate logistic regression analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank from 1994 to 2001 was performed with functional independence measure (FIM) as the primary outcome. Trauma centers were dichotomized as Level II or above versus Level III or below. Blunt and penetrating trauma patients were analyzed separately. Other covariates included age, gender, shock, comorbidities, alcohol, drugs, as well as head, chest, abdominal, spine, and lower extremity injury. Confidence intervals were set at an alpha of 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 474,024 patients were analyzed. Among minimally injured penetrating trauma patients, those receiving care at a higher tiered center had a higher likelihood of total independence (odds ratio [OR] = 1.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0, 2.0). Among minimal, moderate and severely injured blunt trauma patients those receiving care at a higher tiered center had a higher likelihood of total independence (OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 1.0, 1.4, OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.1, 1.6, OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.3, 1.5, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the complex care delivered by advanced level trauma centers is associated with improved functional outcomes. Further investigations to identify the reasons for differences in these outcomes are necessary to improve care at lower tiered hospitals particularly for minimally injured patients.     

Physiologic trauma triage criteria in adult trauma patients: are they effective in saving lives by transporting patients to trauma centers?

BACKGROUND: Trauma triage criteria have been in place for many years and were updated in 1999 by the American College of Surgeons. We are unaware of any studies that have directly examined the ability of these criteria to reduce short-term mortality by transporting patients to trauma centers rather than to noncenters. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective observational cohort study of adult patients meeting physiologic triage criteria who were transported to 9 regional (Level I) trauma centers, 21 area (Level II) trauma centers, and 119 noncenters in New York in 1996 to 1998. For each triage criterion and for one or more of the criteria, odds ratios and their confidence intervals for mortality in regional and area trauma centers versus noncenters and odds ratios and their confidence intervals for mortality in regional centers versus area centers and noncenters were used to measure performance. RESULTS: Patients in regional trauma centers had considerably lower mortality than patients in area trauma centers and noncenters for two individual triage criteria and for patients with one or more triage criteria (odds ratio, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.63-0.90 for one or more criteria). Also, patients with head injuries who were treated in regional centers had notably lower mortality than patients in other hospitals (odds ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.53-0.85). CONCLUSIONS: In New York, regional trauma centers exhibit considerably lower mortality than area trauma centers or noncenters for adult patients meeting specific physiologic triage criteria. It is important that population-based trauma systems with data from centers and noncenters be developed for the purpose of evaluating and redesigning trauma systems.     

Is attrition of advanced trauma life support acquired skills affected by trauma patient volume?

BACKGROUND: We assessed the effect of trauma volume on skills attrition among physicians completing the advance trauma life support (ATLS) course. METHODS: Cognitive (40 item multiple choice question [MCQ] examination) and clinical (4 objective structured clinical examinations [OSCE] trauma stations) performances were compared among physicians who completed the ATLS course, subdividing them into groups treating more than 50 and fewer than 50 trauma patients per year. Both groups had 12 physicians from six periods (n = 144) related to time of course completion: immediate (0), 6 months, 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, and 8 years after ATLS. OSCE scores (maximum standardized: 20), the degree of adherence to priorities (priority score: range 1 to 7), the degree of organized approach (approach score: range from 1 to 5) were compared. RESULTS: The mean precourse MCQ scores (59.4% to 62.4%) were similar for both groups. Immediate and progressive cognitive skill attrition and detailed clinical skill attrition were worse in the low volume group. Global skills (organized approach and adherence to priorities) were preserved similarly for at least 8 years in all groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that trauma volume affects trauma skills attrition.     

Severe hepatic trauma：surgical strategies

Objective:To probe into effective surgical procedures and improve the outcome of treatment for patients with severe hepatic injury.Methods:A retrospective study involving 113 patients with severe hepatic trauma(AAST grade IV and V) during the past 12 years was carried out.Ninety-eight patients underwent surgical treatment.Surgical interventions including hepatectomy or direct control of bleeding vessels by finger fracture technique with Pringle maneuver, selective ligation of hepatic artery,retrohepatic caval repair with total hepatic vascular occlusion,and perihepatic packing were mainly used.Results:In the 98 patients treated operatively,the survival rate was 69.4%(68/98).Among 40 patients with juxtahepatic venous injury(JHVI),15 were cured with the maximum blood transfusion of 12 000 ml.Eight cases of Grade IV injury treated nonoperatively were cured.The percentage of failure of nonoperative management was 42.9%(6/14).The overall mortality rate was 32.7%(37/113),and 57% of the deaths were due to exsanguinations.Conclusions:Reasonable surgical procedures based on classification of hepatic injuries can increase the survival rate of severe liver trauma.Accurate perlihepatic packing is effective in dealing with JHVI.     

Diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic trauma

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Vascular trauma in Colombia: experience of a level I trauma center in Medellín

Trauma has become a major health problem in Colombia. The large number of trauma patients has made San Vicente de Paul Hospital of Medellín a major national referred trauma center. Under-reporting is a major problem in Colombia, as in other underdeveloped countries, because of the absence of automated information systems. Despite this and limited financial health resources, time to definitive treatment, morbidity, and mortality are similar to those of centers in developed countries. This article has covered the authors' experience with vascular injuries over a period of 5 years, representing 664 patients; the results were shown in this article. In addition, advances made in the development of new tools for the diagnosis of vascular trauma, such as helical CT angiography, were discussed.     

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt for trauma?

We report a case of successful emergency TIPS placement to control intra-abdominal bleeding after blunt abdominal trauma in a patient with severe cirrhosis and portal hypertension.     

Bile duct injury following blunt abdominal trauma

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What’s new in trauma 2020

Throughout the past 2020, the pandemic COVID-19 has caused a big global shock, meanwhile it brought a great impact on the public health network. Trauma emergency system faced a giant challenge and how to manage trauma under the pandemic of COVID-19 was widely discussed. However, the trauma treatment of special population (geriatric patients and patients taking anticoagulant drugs) has received inadequate attention. Due to the high mortality following severe traumatic hemorrhage, hemostasis and traumainduced coagulopathy are the important concerns in trauma treatment. Sepsis is another topic should not be ignored when we talking about trauma. COVID-19 itself is a special kind of sepsis, and it may even be called as serious systemic infection syndrome. Sepsis has been become a serious problem waiting to be solved urgently no matter in the fields of trauma, or in intensive care and infection, etc. This article reviewed the research progress in areas including trauma emergency care, trauma bleeding and coagulation, geriatric trauma and basic research of trauma within 2020.     

Surgical trauma: hyperinflammation versus immunosuppression?

Background Experimental and clinical studies have brought evidence that surgical trauma markedly affects the immune system, including both the specific and the non-specific immune response.Materials and methods This report reviews the present knowledge on the mechanisms of surgical trauma-induced immune dysfunction and outlines experimental and clinical approaches to find effective treatment strategies.Results Major surgical trauma induces an early hyperinflammatory response, which is characterized by (1) pro-inflammatory tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF), interleukin (IL)-1, and IL-6 cytokine release and (2) neutrophil activation and microvascular adherence, as well as (3) uncontrolled polymorphonuclear (PMN) and macrophage oxidative burst. The massive and continuous IL-6 release induces an acute phase response, but, more importantly, also accounts for the up-regulation of major anti-inflammatory mediators, such as prostaglandin (PG) E2, IL-10 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß. This results in surgical, trauma-induced, immunosuppression, as indicated by (1) monocyte deactivation, reflected by the lack of monocytic TNF- production upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, and (2) a shift of the Th1/Th2 ratio towards a Th2-dominated cytokine pattern. The imbalance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and immuno-competent cells determines the phenotype of disease and should help the physician to compose the therapeutic strategy. In fact, recent clinical studies have shown that both the initial uncontrolled hyperinflammation and the continued cell-mediated immunosuppression represent primary targets to counteract post-surgery immune dysfunction. The balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory forces may be restored by interferon gamma (IFN-) to counteract monocyte deactivation; the anti-inflammatory PGE2 may be inhibited by indomethacin to attenuate immunosuppression; or the initial hyperinflammation may be targeted by administration of anti-inflammatory substances, such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), hydoxyethyl starch, or pentoxifylline.Conclusions When drawing up the therapeutic regimen the physician should not consider hyperinflammation versus immunosuppression, but hyperinflammation and immunosuppression, aiming at restoring an appropriate mediator- and immune cell-associated balance.