Scand J Trauma Resus
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
The counterintuitive effect of multiple injuries in severity scoring: a simple variable improves the predictive ability of NISS.
Injury scoring is important to formulate prognoses for trauma patients. Although scores based on empirical estimation allow for better prediction, those based on expert consensus, e.g. the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) are widely used. We describe how the addition of a variable quantifying the number of injuries improves the ability of NISS to predict mortality. ⋯ In NISS, the same weight is assigned to the three worst injuries, although the contribution of the second and third to the probability of death is smaller than that of the worst one. An improvement of the predictive ability of NISS can be obtained adjusting for the number of injuries.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
EditorialUnanswered questions in the use of blood component therapy in trauma.
Recent advances in our approach to blood component therapy in traumatic hemorrhage have resulted in a reassessment of many of the tenants of management which were considered standards of therapy for many years. Indeed, despite the use of damage control techniques, the mortality from trauma induced coagulopathy has not changed significantly over the past 30 years. More specifically, a resurgence of interest in postinjury hemostasis has generated controversies in three primary areas: 1) The pathogenesis of trauma induced coagulopathy 2) The optimal ratio of blood components administered via a pre-emptive schedule for patients at risk for this condition, ("damage control resuscitation"), and 3) The appropriate use of monitoring mechanisms of coagulation function during the phase of active management of trauma induced coaguopathy, which we have previously termed "goal directed therapy". Accordingly, recent experience from both military and civilian centers have begun to address these controversies, with certain management trends emerging which appear to significantly impact the way we approach these patients.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
LetterNovel rapid infusion device for patients in emergency situations.
Rapid fluid administration is often required for resuscitation when patients are admitted in emergency department with hypovolemic shock or excessive blood loss. Various methods have been described earlier to increase the fluid administration speed. Larger vein size, larger bore cannula, height of fluid, pressure over fluid bottle etc. are some of methods described in such situations. We here describe a novel method to administer intravenous fluid rapidly and this method can be utilized in emergency and trauma settings.
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Jan 2011
Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical TrialAssociation between a single-pass whole-body computed tomography policy and survival after blunt major trauma: a retrospective cohort study.
Single-pass, whole-body computed tomography (pan-scan) remains a controversial intervention in the early assessment of patients with major trauma. We hypothesized that a liberal pan-scan policy is mainly an indicator of enhanced process quality of emergency care that may lead to improved survival regardless of the actual use of the method. ⋯ In this study, a liberal pan-scan policy was associated with lower trauma mortality. The causal role of the pan-scan itself must be interpreted in the context of improved structural and process quality, is apparently moderate and needs further investigation with regard to the diagnostic yield and changes in management decisions. (The Pan-Scan for Trauma Resuscitation [PATRES] Study Group, ISRCTN35424832 and ISRCTN41462125).
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Recent literature states that many necessary skills of CPR and first aid are forgotten shortly after certification. The purpose of this study was to determine the skill and knowledge decay in first aid in those who are paid to respond to emergency situations within a workplace. ⋯ As many skills deteriorate rapidly over the course of the first 90 days, changing frequency of certification is not necessarily the most obvious choice to increase retention of skill and knowledge. Alternatively, methods of regularly "refreshing" a skill should be explored that could be delivered at a high frequency - such as every 90 days.