Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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While trauma registries have the potential to collect detailed information about patient outcomes, the most commonly reported outcome, mortality, only represents the outcome from a small proportion of the total trauma population. If trauma registries are to progress to routine monitoring of outcomes in trauma survivors, instruments that measure relevant outcomes in the remainder of the trauma population must be identified and implemented. This report provides an overview of the specific needs of trauma registries with respect to assessing patient outcomes other than mortality. The use of previously recommended outcome assessment instruments is discussed, with a focus on the utility of these instruments for use in routine monitoring of trauma outcomes other than mortality through trauma registries.
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To evaluate the utility of routine abdominal computed tomographic (CT) scanning for abdominal evaluation of blunt trauma patients before urgent extra-abdominal surgery. ⋯ Abdominal CT scanning has a low yield in trauma patients whose sole indication for diagnostic abdominal evaluation is the need for general anesthesia for urgent extra-abdominal surgery. A small percentage of these patients, however, will have important intra-abdominal injuries such that further refinement of the recommendations for diagnostic study in this select population is needed.
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Closed traumatic brain injury (cTBI) is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in children. The natural course and extent of recovery from cTBI in children are poorly understood. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE), an enzyme detected in serum following structural damage of neuronal brain cells, appears to be a good marker for intracranial injury. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the usefulness of NSE as a predictor of disability in children with cTBI has not been reported. ⋯ It appears that the serum NSE level can be used as a predictor of global short-term physical disability in children following cTBI.
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To prospectively validate a previously published out-of-hospital clinical decision rule to identify seriously injured children involved in motor vehicle crashes (MVCs). ⋯ Although definitive conclusions are limited by the sample size, the decision rule identified all seriously injured children involved in MVCs and had moderate specificity. The decision rule was less sensitive for identifying children requiring specialized trauma care. Larger validation studies are needed to adequately assess the utility of this rule before implementation.