Articles: trauma.
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The psychological impact of critical illness on a patient can be severe, and frequently results in acute distress as well as psychological morbidity after leaving hospital. A UK guideline states that patients should be assessed in critical care units, both for acute distress and risk of future psychological morbidity; but no suitable method for carrying out this assessment exists. The Intensive care psychological assessment tool (IPAT) was developed as a simple, quick screening tool to be used routinely to detect acute distress, and the risk of future psychological morbidity, in critical care units. ⋯ The IPAT was found to have good reliability and validity. Sensitivity and specificity analysis suggest the IPAT could provide a way of allowing staff to assess psychological distress among critical care patients after further replication and validation. Further work is also needed to determine its utility in predicting future psychological morbidity.
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Trauma is the leading cause of death among people under the age of 44. Hemorrhage is a major contributor to deaths related to trauma in the first 48 h. Accordingly, the management of these patients is a time-sensitive and critical affair that anesthesiologists responsible for surgical resuscitation will face. ⋯ Certain pharmaceutical strategies and non-transfusion strategies also exist, which aid in the management of hemorrhagic shock. Damage control surgery, rewarming, tranexamic acid, and 1:1:1 transfusion protocols are promising methods used to treat the critically wounded. Though protocols have been developed, controversies still exist on the optimal resuscitation strategy.
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Hypotensive resuscitation is a component of damage control resuscitation, the evolving approach to resuscitation in severely injured trauma patients. Resuscitation strategies used in treating severely injured trauma patients have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. The purpose of this review is to examine the current literature pertaining to hypotensive resuscitation, explore its use in damage control resuscitation, and examine blood pressure management in the setting of severe trauma.
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Case Reports
Serial CT findings of a rapidly calcified epidural hematoma in a young adult: a case report.
We report serial computed tomography (CT) findings in a rare case of a rapidly calcified epidural hematoma. A 21-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital after being involved in a motor vehicle accident. An initial cranial CT revealed a right frontal bone fracture. ⋯ Follow-up CT revealed an ossified epidural hematoma (EDH) 17 days after the head injury, and the ossification later thickened. However, a decrease in the width of the EDH was observed during the 9 months of follow-up during which serial CT images were acquired. The EDH resolved 9 months after the initial trauma, but the calcification layer remained thickened.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Pragmatic Clinical Trial
Pragmatic Randomized Optimal Platelet and Plasma Ratios (PROPPR) Trial: Design, rationale and implementation.
Forty percent of in-hospital deaths among injured patients involve massive truncal haemorrhage. These deaths may be prevented with rapid haemorrhage control and improved resuscitation techniques. The Pragmatic Randomized Optimal Platelet and Plasma Ratios (PROPPR) Trial was designed to determine if there is a difference in mortality between subjects who received different ratios of FDA approved blood products. This report describes the design and implementation of PROPPR. ⋯ PROPPR is the largest randomized study to enrol severely bleeding patients. This study showed that rapidly enrolling and successfully providing randomized blood products to severely injured patients in an EFIC study is feasible. PROPPR was able to achieve these goals by utilizing a collaborative structure and developing successful procedures and design elements that can be part of future trauma studies.