European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
The exponential function transforms the Abbreviated Injury Scale, which both improves accuracy and simplifies scoring.
We present here the exponential function which transforms the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). It is called the Exponential Injury Severity Score (EISS), and significantly outperforms the venerable but dated New Injury Severity Score (NISS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS) as a predictor of mortality. ⋯ The EISS may be used as the standard summary measure of human trauma.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
Should prehospital resuscitative thoracotomy be incorporated in advanced life support after traumatic cardiac arrest?
The survival of traumatic cardiac arrest patients poses a challenge for Emergency Medical Services initiating advanced life support on-scene, especially with regard to having to decide immediately whether to initiate prehospital emergency thoracotomy. Although the necessity for carrying out the procedure remains a cause for debate, it can be life-saving when performed with the correct indications and approaches.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
Efficacy of N-acetylcysteine on neuroclinical, biochemical, and histopathological parameters in experimental spinal cord trauma: comparison with methylprednisolone.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is an antioxidant agent that has been shown to have beneficial effects when treating various diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of NAC on spinal cord injury in an experimental rat model. ⋯ It was concluded that NAC treatment and the combined NAC + MP treatment may be more useful for healing in rats with experimental spinal cord injury in terms of neuroclinical, pathological, and biochemical results than MP-only therapy.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
Epidemiology of pertrochanteric fractures: our institutional experience.
Hip fractures, a common manifestation of fragility fractures, represent a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly population and may have devastating consequences to the patient, their family, and society thereafter. We attempted to define the epidemiology of pertrochanteric fractures treated at a large university teaching hospital in the UK and compared our findings with the national and international literature. ⋯ The incidence of pertrochanteric fractures remained unchanged over the last 5 years. The relative incidence of pertrochanteric fractures is higher in elderly females; this may be explained by reduced bone mineral density and reduced trochanteric bone strength. Rigorous preventive treatments of osteoporosis should be considered in high-risk patients, along with improved safety measures to reduce falls.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jun 2014
Pooled preventable death rates in trauma patients : Meta analysis and systematic review since 1990.
To estimate the pooled PDRs (preventable death rates) with articles being published since 1990, and compare the differences of PDRs over time and according to the evaluation approaches to determine preventable deaths. ⋯ This article provided some insights about the trauma care system by computing the pooled estimate of PDRs over the past 23 years as an indicator. The pooled PDR was estimated as approximately 20 %, with no statistical significance of differences in PDRs over time or by the evaluation methods employed. That left us still room for improvement in trauma care system despite our efforts to reduce PDRs. In addition, when 'statistical approaches' are applied alone to estimate PDRs, we recommend that statistical methods should be applied with caution when the characteristics of trauma patients are heterogeneous. The optimal approach might be to combine both statistical and panel review approaches instead of employing a single approach.