J Trauma
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Multicenter Study
Penetrating esophageal injuries: multicenter study of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
The purpose of this study was to define the period of time after which delays in management incurred by investigations cause increased morbidity and mortality. The outcome study is intended to correlate time with death from esophageal causes, overall complications, esophageal related complications, and surgical intensive care unit length of stay. ⋯ Esophageal injuries carry a high morbidity and mortality. Increased esophageal related morbidity occurs with the diagnostic workup and its inherent delay in operative repair of these injuries. For centers practicing selective management of penetrating neck injuries and transmediastinal gunshot wounds, rapid diagnosis and definitive repair should be made a high priority.
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Multicenter Study
The importance of gender on outcome after major trauma: functional and psychologic outcomes in women versus men.
Outcome after major trauma is an increasingly important focus of injury research. The effect of gender on functional and psychological outcomes has not been examined. The Trauma Recovery Project is a large, prospective, epidemiologic study designed to examine multiple outcomes after major trauma, including quality of life, functional outcome, and psychological sequelae such as depression and early symptoms of acute stress reaction. The specific objectives of the present report are to examine gender differences in short- and long-term functional and psychological outcomes in the Trauma Recovery Project population. ⋯ Women are at risk for markedly worse functional and psychological outcomes after major trauma than men, independent of injury severity and mechanism. Gender differences in short- and long-term trauma outcomes have important implications for future studies of recovery from trauma.
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Artificial neural networks (ANNs) use nonlinear statistical modeling techniques to explore relationships in complex clinical situations. This study compared predictive ability of a trained ANN model to that of physician prediction of cranial computed tomographic (CT) scan abnormalities in children with head injury. ⋯ ANNs may serve as a useful aid for decision support for emergency physicians in predicting intracranial abnormalities in closed head injury.
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Thoracic ultrasound may rapidly diagnose pneumothorax when radiographs are unobtainable; the accuracy is not known. ⋯ Thoracic ultrasound reliably diagnoses pneumothorax. Expansion of the focused abdominal sonography for trauma (FAST) examination to include the thorax should be investigated for terrestrial and space medical applications.
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The true importance of blunt cardiac trauma (BCT) is related to the cardiac complications arising from it. Diagnostic tests that can predict accurately if such complications will develop or not may allow early and aggressive monitoring or early discharge. We investigated the role of two simple and convenient tests, serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and electrocardiogram (ECG), when used to identify patients at risk of cardiac complications after BCT. ⋯ The combination of ECG and cTnI identifies reliably the presence or absence of Sig-BCT. Patients with an abnormal ECG and cTnI need close monitoring for at least 24 hours. Patients with a normal admission ECG and cTnI can be safely discharged in the absence of other injuries.