Injury
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Comparative Study
Pre-hospital rescue times and actions in severe trauma. A comparison between two trauma systems: Germany and the Netherlands.
The aim of this study was to compare the effect of national pre-hospital rescue strategies on the status of severely injured patients at the time of admission to a Trauma Center (TC) in Germany or the Netherlands. ⋯ Many differences in the national pre-hospital strategy were demonstrated but the effect on patient's status at the time of admission to trauma room remains unclear. A follow-up study, which mitigates the now known injury patterns has to be initiated to further substantiate the findings of this study.
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Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) has been established in the preclinical treatment of multiple traumatised patients despite an ongoing controversy towards the potential benefit. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of TraumaRegister DGU(®) of the German Trauma Society (DGU) the presented study intended to provide an overview of HEMS rescue in Germany over the last 10 years analysing the potential beneficial impact of a nationwide helicopter rescue in multiple traumatised patients. ⋯ This study was able to prove an independent survival benefit of HEMS in multiple traumatised patients during the last 10 years. Despite this fact, a constant decline of HEMS rescue missions was found in multiple trauma patients due to unknown reasons. We concluded that HEMS should be used more often in case of trauma in order to guarantee the proven benefit for multiple traumatised patients.
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Trauma related injuries are a main cause for long-lasting morbidity and disability especially in younger patients with their productive years ahead. On a routine basis, we assessed health related quality of life two years after trauma of severely injured patients at our level-I trauma centre via posted survey. ⋯ Our results demonstrate that multiple trauma patients two years after injury suffer from impairments including persisting pain, functional deficits, mental and socioeconomic deficits. The 'Trauma Outcome Profile' instrument seems a proper tool to discover impairments in trauma patients early on and guide proper rehabilitation resources to the best of the patient.
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In a recent publication, 297 of 6450 (4.6%) military coalition deaths over ten years were reported to be due to junctional bleeding. The authors suggested that some of these deaths could have been avoided with a junctional haemorrhage control device. Prospectively collected data on all injuries sustained in Afghanistan by UK military personnel from 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2011 period were reviewed, using the UK Joint Theatre Trauma Registry. ⋯ Some potentially survivable deaths due to exsanguination may be amenable to proximal vascular control. Our study does not substantiate previous conclusions that this can be achieved through use of a groin junctional tourniquet. We believe there may be a role for more proximal vascular control of pelvic bleeding, and this merits further research.
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The use of permissive hypotension includes a restrained volume preclinical therapy. However, in the elderly patients, this approach has raised concerns because of the increased cardiovascular risk profile and a higher incidence of hypertension under normal conditions. The aim of the study was to examine whether preclinical administration of restrictive volume therapy in the elderly patient can be safe. ⋯ Based on these data it can be assumed that the lower preclinical volume administration has a positive effect on the initial coagulation status in elderly patients. In spite of some limitations such as low number of matched pairs, we draw the cautious conclusion that a restrictive preclinical volume therapy is safe and also indicated in elderly patients.