European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society
-
Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
Assessing the gap between the acute trauma workload and the capacity of a single rural health district in South Africa. What are the implications for systems planning?
This study focuses on a single rural health district in South Africa, and attempts to establish the burden of disease and to review the capacity of the district hospitals to deal with this load. ⋯ There is a significant burden of trauma in the Sisonke District, yet the capacity to deal with this burden is inadequate. Although the physical infrastructure is adequate, the deficits relate to human resources. The strategic choices are between enhancing the district hospitals' capacity to deal with acute trauma, or deciding to bypass them completely and deliver all acute trauma patients to large regional trauma centers. If the first option is chosen, urgent intervention is required to build up the human resource capacity of district hospitals.
-
Extramedullary fixation with a sliding hip screw remains the treatment of choice for the majority of trochanteric hip fractures. Attention to surgical detail is far more important that the actual choice of implant. The fracture must be reduced to an anatomical or slight valgus position using the fracture table. ⋯ A four-hole plate should suffice for most fractures. After surgery, weight bearing as able should be allowed. For fractures fixed correctly, wound or fracture healing complication should be rare, occurring in <5 % of cases.
-
Motor vehicle collisions account for the majority of blunt vascular trauma. Much of the literature describes the management of these injuries in isolation, and there is little information concerning the incidence and outcome in patients suffering multiple trauma. This study was undertaken to describe the spectrum of blunt vascular injuries in polytrauma patients. ⋯ Blunt vascular injury is uncommon in the patient with multiple trauma but confers substantial morbidity and mortality. In those cases with peripheral injuries, delays in referral to definitive care frequently exceed the ischaemic time, resulting in a high rate of amputations. Central injuries, especially those of the vena cava, account for the majority of directly attributable deaths.
-
The concealment of packets of illegal substances within body cavities is a common technique for drug smuggling worldwide. The goal of our study was to analyze the results of conservative treatment of "body packers", indications for surgical intervention, and postoperative morbidity. ⋯ Conservative management was effective in 94 % of symptomatic patients. A laparotomy was required in only 3.5 % of cases. The mortality rate in this series was low, resulting from either severe cocaine poisoning from ruptured packets or bowel perforation.
-
Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
Acute traumatic fractures to the craniovertebral junction: preliminary experience with the "MILD" score scale.
Traumatic fractures to the craniovertebral junction (CVJ) are rare events requiring complex clinical management. Several classification systems are currently in use; however, recent improvements of junctional knowledge has focused attention on the role of ligaments and membranes in vertebral biomechanical stability. The aim of this study was to present our preliminary experience with the "MILD" score scale, which should allow fast and effective classification of all CVJ traumatic fractures based on vertebral instability in the acute setting. ⋯ The close association between the MILD scale and spinal instability is promising, although further studies are warranted in order to confirm our preliminary data.