European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society
-
Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Dec 2019
A novel method to assess the severity and prognosis in crush syndrome by assessment of skin damage in hairless rats.
Crush syndrome (CS), a serious medical condition characterised by damage to the muscle cells due to pressure, is associated with high mortality, even when patients receive fluid therapy during transit to the hospital or admission to the hospital. There is no standard triage approach for earthquake victims with crush injuries due to the scarcity of epidemiologic and quantitative data. We examined whether mortality can be predicted based on the severity of skin damage so that assess the severity and prognosis in crush syndrome by assessment of skin damage in hairless rats because we have previously observed that CS results in oedema and redness of the skin in rats. ⋯ Skin damage is a valid measure of transepidermal water loss and severity of CS. We suggest that these models may be useful to professionals who are not experienced in disaster management to identify earthquake victims at high risk of severe CS.