J Trauma
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Although psychiatric disturbances are highly prevalent among traumatically injured inpatients, few investigations have assessed the impact of these disorders on surgical length of stay (LOS) and cost. ⋯ Patients with recognized psychiatric disorders uniquely impact inpatient trauma surgery LOS and cost. Additional investigations of the processes and outcomes of care could lead to cost-effective performance improvement efforts that target the amelioration of comorbid psychiatric disorders among physically injured trauma survivors.
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Intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) are known to occur in patients after major abdominal surgery. The incidence of IAH and ACS in the burn population is not known. ⋯ IAH occurs commonly in major burn patients, and ACS is seen regularly in patients with more than 70% body surface area burns. We recommend bladder pressure measurements after infusion of more than 0.25 L/kg during the acute resuscitation phase and for peak inspiratory pressures greater than 40 cm H2O. Whereas ACS warrants surgical decompression of the abdominal cavity, IAH usually responds to conservative therapy.
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Comparative Study
United States Army Rangers in Somalia: an analysis of combat casualties on an urban battlefield.
This study was undertaken to determined the differences in injury patterns between soldiers equipped with modern body armor in an urban environment compared with the soldiers of the Vietnam War. ⋯ The incidence of fatal head wounds was similar to that in Vietnam in spite of modern Kevlar helmets. Body armor reduced the number of fatal penetrating chest injuries. Penetrating wounds to the unprotected face, groin, and pelvis caused significant mortality. These data may be used to design improved body armor.
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There have been several attempts to develop a scoring system that can accurately reflect the severity of a trauma patient's injuries, particularly with respect to the effect of the injury on survival. Current methodologies require unreliable physiologic data for the assignment of a survival probability and fail to account for the potential synergism of different injury combinations. The purpose of this study was to develop a scoring system to better estimate probability of mortality on the basis of information that is readily available from the hospital discharge sheet and does not rely on physiologic data. ⋯ The HARM score is an effective tool for predicting probability of in-hospital mortality for trauma patients. It outperforms both the TRISS and ICD9-CM Injury Severity Score (ICISS) methodologies with respect to both discrimination and calibration, using information that is readily available from hospital discharge coding, and without requiring emergency department physiologic data.