Injury
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The Pain, Inspiratory effort, Cough score (PIC) has been developed and widely adopted to guide clinical prognostication for patients with chest wall injury. To date, the efficacy, accuracy, and safety of a PIC based triage system has not been validated. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the use of a modified-PIC score to triage and down-grade trauma patients with chest wall injury at a single institution. ⋯ This is the largest study, to date, evaluating the impact of a modified-PIC triage system on clinical outcomes. The results suggest a modified-PIC triage system may lead to decreased ICU days, ARDS rates, and rates of cardiac arrest w/ ROSC, potentially improving hospital resource allocation. Further prospective and multi-center studies are needed to validate our understanding on the impact of a chest wall scoring system on triage and outcomes.
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The elderly population is growing worldwide and is more likely to die from injuries that younger patients would likely survive. Furthermore, elderly trauma patients are often subjected to triage decisions that admit them to lower-level facilities. These patients may require interhospital transfer to a major trauma center for definitive care. The aim of this study was to investigate the time interval from arrival at the primary hospital to arrival at the trauma center among elderly trauma patients (≥65 years) as compared to younger, adult patients (18-64 years). We hypothesized that elderly trauma patients would endure a longer time interval. ⋯ In conclusion, elderly trauma patients experienced significantly longer median delays from arrival at the primary hospital to arrival at the trauma center compared to younger adult trauma patients. The elderly trauma patients met the quality standard for transfer time at a lower rate than the younger group.
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In 2004, our level 1 regional pediatric trauma center created a protocol to activate ECMO for children with suspected hypothermic cardiac arrest based on inclusion criteria: serum potassium ≤9, submersion <90 min, and core body temperature <30 °C. In 2017, Pasquier et al. developed a model to help predict the survival of adults after hypothermic cardiac arrest (HOPE score) that has not been validated in children. We sought to apply this score to our pediatric patient population to determine if it can optimize our patient selection. ⋯ ECMO can be a lifesaving measure for specific children after hypothermic arrest. However, identifying the patients that will benefit from this resource-intensive intervention remains difficult. HOPE score utilization may decrease the rate of futile cannulation in children, but multi-centered research is needed in the pediatric population.
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Falls are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among older adults in the United States. Current fall prevention interventions rely on provider referral or enrollment during inpatient admissions and require engagement and independence of the patient. Community emergency medical services (CEMS) are a unique opportunity to rapidly identify older adults at risk for falls and provide proactive fall prevention interventions in the home. We describe the demographics and treatment characteristics of the older adult population most likely to benefit from these interventions. ⋯ A significant proportion of older adults presenting to the ED with fall related injury have encounters with EMS in the preceding months. These participants are predisposed to poorer health and economic outcomes worsened by their fall and thus demonstrate a population that would benefit from CEMS fall prevention programs.
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Despite research linking chemical and physical restraints to negative outcomes including unplanned intubations and psychological distress, there is little guidance for their use in the care of trauma patients. We used institutional data to describe recent trends in chemical and physical restraint in the emergency department evaluation and treatment of trauma patients and to identify characteristics associated with their use. ⋯ In this institutional study, nearly one-in-twelve trauma patients were restrained during emergency department evaluation and treatment. Restraint utilization increased during the study driven primarily by increases in ketamine and restraints utilized during trauma bay evaluation and resuscitation. Future research should assess the generalizability of these findings. It is important that rigorous guidelines are established to ensure the safe and effective use of restraints in trauma.