J Trauma
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On April 8, 1998, an F5 tornado touched down in two counties of Alabama producing a wide path of destruction. The presence of a regional trauma system in this area presents an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the system in responding to the victims of this natural disaster. ⋯ The regional trauma system facilitated appropriate and efficient triage to system hospitals, routing the most severely injured patients to the Level I centers without overwhelming them with the more numerous, less severely injured patients.
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Case Reports Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Age should not be a consideration for nonoperative management of blunt splenic injury.
Operative management of blunt splenic injury is recommended for adults > or = 55 years. Because this is not our practice, we did a retrospective review to compare outcomes of patients > or = 55 years old versus patients < 55 years old. ⋯ Adults > or = 55 years old with blunt splenic injury are successfully treated by NOM. Although older adults had significantly greater injuries, they had similar failure rates of NOM when compared with younger adults. Older adults had significantly higher mortality, but this was not a result of their splenic injury. Therefore, age should not be a criteria for NOM of blunt splenic injury.