J Trauma
-
Based on the 242 consecutive surviving head injury cases and 132 general trauma cases, this study examined the contribution of brain and non-brain injuries to cognitive and psychosocial outcome 1 month postinjury. The study also examined the relationships among various head injury severity indices. ⋯ Psychosocial outcome related to both brain and non-brain injuries independently. When evaluating trauma outcome, it is important to consider the contributions of both brain and other system injuries.
-
Comparative Study
Combined hemorrhagic shock and head injury: effects of hypertonic saline (7.5%) resuscitation.
Hypertonic saline resuscitation was compared to isotonic fluid resuscitation in a large animal model combining hemorrhagic shock with head injury. Sheep were subjected to a freeze injury of one cerebral hemisphere as well as 2 hours of hypotension at a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 40 mm Hg. Resuscitation was then carried out (MAP = 80 mm Hg) for 1 hour with either lactated Ringer's (LR, n = 6) or 7.5% hypertonic saline (HS, n = 6). ⋯ No differences were detected in the injured hemispheres. We conclude that hypertonic saline abolishes increases in ICP seen during resuscitation in a model combining hemorrhagic shock with brain injury by dehydrating areas where the blood-brain barrier is still intact. Hypertonic saline may prove useful in the early management of multiple trauma patients.
-
Blunt traumatic rupture of the heart and pericardium, rarely diagnosed preoperatively, carries a high mortality rate. From 1979 to 1989, more than 20,000 patients were admitted to a Level I trauma center. A retrospective review identified 59 patients requiring emergency surgery for this condition. ⋯ In the remaining 29 patients, diagnosis was made by urgent thoracotomy (41%), by subxiphoid pericardial window (34%), during laparotomy (21%), or by chest radiography (3%). The overall mortality rate was 76% (45 patients), but only 52% for those with vital signs on admission. Rapid transportation and expeditious surgical treatment can save many patients with these injuries.
-
Comparative Study
Techniques of emergency ventilation: a model to evaluate tidal volume, airway pressure, and gastric insufflation.
We designed a model to evaluate the effectiveness of various noninvasive methods of ventilation. The upper airway was simulated with the head of a Resusci-Annie which was attached to a test lung. The esophagus and stomach were simulated with a Penrose drain connected to a rolling seal spirometer via a PEEP valve. ⋯ Mouth-to-mouth and mouth-to-mask techniques generated the largest tidal volumes but also created the largest volume of gastric insufflation. The Impact ventilator provided an acceptable tidal volume with minimal gastric insufflation. Our results suggest that mouth-to-mask ventilation with supplemental oxygen enrichment is the most efficient technique for non-invasive airway management.
-
In four patients with lesions of the vertebral artery resulting from cervical spine injury, two were due to unilateral facet dislocation and two to fractures of the dens. There was one arterial occlusion with minor vertebrobasilar symptoms, and an arterial lesion with thrombosis causing embolic occlusion of the basilar artery with lethal outcome. ⋯ In a patient with pseudarthrosis of the dens an aneurysm of the vertebral artery could be detected. Cerebellar or cerebral symptoms associated with cervical spine injury should be investigated by vertebral angiography because vertebral arterial injury may be more common than suspected and may simulate traumatic brain damage.