J Trauma
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Musculoskeletal complications from seizures produced by epilepsy, eclampsia, hyponatremia, electroconvulsive therapy, and severe tetanus have been described. We present a case of a fracture-dislocation of the manubriosternal joint as a complication of seizures, which to the best of our knowledge has not previously been reported.
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The treatment of accidental hypothermia by extracorporeal circulation and internal rewarming can be life saving in patients unconscious from drug overdose or victims of accidental exposure to severe cold. Advantages are the rapidity of treatment, the provision of circulatory support, and a lessened chance of rewarming collapse, since peripheral vasodilation is paralleled by an increase in cardiac output. A premature diagnosis of clinical death was averted in two patients with rectal temperatures of 25 degrees C or below, and their lives were saved by the use of this technique.
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Exsanguination may be presumed in pale, mottled, unresponsive trauma victims with no palpable pulse nor spontaneous respirations with noncranial penetrating wounds. Under ideal circumstances, those victims initially witnessed to have some signs of life can be successfully revived in 5 to 25% of cases. ⋯ After confirming the witnessed cardiopulmonary arrest from presumed exsanguination, the four phases of resuscitation are restoring central oxygenation, controlling internal hemorrhage, re-establishing spontaneous cardiac function, and definitively repairing the injury. Regardless of the type or location of the noncranial penetrating injury, these phases must be accomplished sequentially to minimize the risks of cerebral and cardiac anoxia.
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Hypertonic sodium chloride solutions: effect on hemodynamics and survival after hemorrhage in swine.
We evaluated the hemodynamic response of 12% shed blood replacement with 7.5% sodium chloride after a nonlethal hemorrhage in chronically instrumented swine. Compared to no treatment or Ringer's lactate infusion, the hypertonic salt solution was followed by increased cardiac output. ⋯ The mechanism appears to be by increased tissue perfusion as indicated by lower lactate values. Resuscitation with low-volume hypertonic sodium chloride may be life saving and life supporting during the initial treatment of trauma patients when conventional therapy is not available.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Tube thoracostomy and trauma--antibiotics or not?
Controversy persists regarding the use of antibiotics in association with t tube thoracostomy for trauma patients. We conducted a prospective randomized study of patients requiring tube thoracostomy for pneumo- and/or hemothorax complicating blunt or penetrating thoracic trauma in an attempt to assess the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotic therapy. Fifty-eight patients were included in the study. ⋯ Cultures demonstrated significant conversion from negative to positive both within each group and between groups. The organism most commonly recovered was S. aureus. Our findings strongly suggest that patients requiring tube thoracostomy for trauma, whether blunt or penetrating, should receive the benefit of systemic prophylactic antibiotic therapy.