J Trauma
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Implementing and evaluating an injury prevention curriculum within a pediatric residency program.
Many pediatric residency programs struggle to incorporate injury prevention training into their curricula. ⋯ An injury prevention curriculum for pediatric residents can significantly increase and sustain their fund of knowledge on these important topics.
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The ability to detect damage to the intervertebral structures is critical in the management of patients after blunt trauma. A practical and inexpensive method to identify severe structural damage not clearly seen on computed tomography would be of benefit. The objective of this study was to assess whether ligamentous injury in the subaxial cervical spine can be reliably detected by analysis of lateral radiographs taken with and without axial traction. ⋯ This study supports further clinical investigations to determine whether low-level axial traction may be a useful adjunct for detecting unstable subaxial cervical spine injuries in an acute setting.
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Normal vital signs are typically associated with improved outcomes in trauma patients. Whether this association is true for geriatric patients is unclear. ⋯ Vital signs on presentation are less predictive of mortality in geriatric blunt trauma victims. Geriatric blunt trauma patients warrant increased vigilance despite normal vital signs on presentation. New trauma triage set points of HR >90 or SBP <110 mm Hg should be considered in the geriatric blunt trauma patients.
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Retrievable inferior vena cava filters (rIVCF) reduce the short-term risk of pulmonary embolism without the filter and inferior vena cava (IVC) thrombosis that have been reported with the use of permanent filters. Studies have shown that most rIVCFs are not removed, leaving patients at risk for thrombotic complications of rIVCF retention. We hypothesize that the application of a systematic follow-up for rIVCF will improve filter removal rates, providing patients short-term prophylaxis from pulmonary embolism whereas avoiding complications of permanent filter retention. ⋯ A dedicated system for following-up patients with rIVCFs markedly improves removal rates of retrievable filters.
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Although brain cooling has recently been reported as effective in improving the survival after heatstroke generation in rats, the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of brain cooling are not fully elucidated. This study was conducted to test whether the acute lung inflammation and damage that might occur during heatstroke could be affected by brain cooling. ⋯ These experimental data indicate that acute lung inflammation and damage is a target of brain cooling after heatstroke injury.