Nordisk medicin
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A prospective registration was carried out of all patients with multiple injuries who were admitted to hospital in 1990 during the first 24 hours after the accident. The total number was 441, and included 47 patients with penetrating injuries. Such patients constituted 5 per cent of a total of 9,000 admitted patients, and 19 per cent of a total of 2,266 injured persons. ⋯ Among the 41 patients who died the main cause of death was haemorrhage in 17, and airway obstruction in five. Estimation of probability of survival showed that the mortality in this series compared well with the mortality in larger series of injured persons in America. None the less, improvement is still feasible.