Injury
-
Road traffic crashes are responsible for a vast amount of death and disability in developing countries. This study uses a bottom up, micro-costing approach to determine the cost of road traffic related crashes in South Africa. ⋯ The cost of care of a RTC victim is significant. In light of the high numbers of RTC victims admitted over the course of the year this is a significant cost burden for a regional hospital to bear. This cost must be taken into account when allocating hospital budgets.
-
Paediatric extremity vascular injuries are infrequent, and management protocols draw significantly from adult vascular trauma experience necessitating a continuous review of evidence. ⋯ The epidemiology of paediatric peripheral vascular injury differs in India compared to west. Certain traditional management principles of extremity vascular trauma may stand uniquely challenged in the paediatric population.
-
Comparative Study
Angular stable multiple screw fixation (Targon FN) versus standard SHS for the fixation of femoral neck fractures.
Head-preserving fracture care especially for the elderly may be complicated by acetabular screw penetration, cut out, delayed union or femoral head necrosis. The following comparative study analyses whether a new angular stable device may overcome these shortcomings. ⋯ The study revealed less subsidence of the head fragment, lower cut out rate and a lower rate of conversion to hemiarthroplasty after Targon FN fixation in comparison to a standard SHS fixation in a small number of patients with hip fractures. However, this was not accompanied by functional limitations in the SHS group.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Management of comminuted but continuous mandible defects after gunshot injuries.
Firearm injuries continue as a major public health problem, contributing significant morbidity, mortality, and expense to our society. There are four main steps in the management of patients with gunshot wounds to the face: securing an airway, controlling haemorrhage, identifying other injuries and definitive repair of the traumatic facial deformities. The objective of this study was to determine late outcome of two treatment options by open reduction and internal fixation versus closed reduction and maxillomandibular fixation (MMF) in the treatment of gunshot injuries of the mandible. ⋯ Based on this study open reduction and internal fixation is the best available method for the treatment of gunshot mandible fractures without continuity defect.
-
Comparative Study
Predicting work-related disability and medical cost outcomes: A comparison of injury severity scoring methods.
Acute work-related trauma is a leading cause of death and disability among U.S. workers. Occupational health services researchers have described the pressing need to identify valid injury severity measures for purposes such as case-mix adjustment and the construction of appropriate comparison groups in programme evaluation, intervention, quality improvement, and outcome studies. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of several injury severity scores and scoring methods in the context of predicting work-related disability and medical cost outcomes. ⋯ Injury severity was significantly associated with work disability and medical cost outcomes for work-related injuries. Injury severity can be estimated using either ICDMAP-90 or ICDPIC when ICD-9-CM codes are available. We observed little practical difference between severity measures or scoring methods. This study demonstrated that using existing software to estimate injury severity may be useful to enhance occupational injury surveillance and research.