Articles: trauma.
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In past and ongoing military conflicts, the use of whole blood (WB) as a resuscitative product to treat trauma-induced shock and coagulopathy has been widely accepted as an alternative when availability of a balanced component-based transfusion strategy is restricted or lacking. In previous military conflicts, ABO group O blood from donors with low titers of anti-A/B blood group antibodies was favored. Now, several policies demand the exclusive use of ABO group-specific WB. ⋯ Emergency settings are often chaotic and resource limited, factors well known to increase the potential for human errors. Using ABO group-specific WB in emergencies may delay treatment because of needed ABO typing, increase the risk of clinical HTRs, and increase the severity of these reactions as well as increase the danger of underresuscitation due to lack of some ABO groups. When the clinical decision has been made to transfuse WB in patients with life-threatening hemorrhagic shock, we recommend the use of group O WB from donors with low anti-A/B titers when logistical constraints preclude the rapid availability of ABO group-specific WB and reliable group matching between donor and recipient is not feasible.
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Review
Blast injury and the human skeleton: an important emerging aspect of conflict-related trauma.
Recent decades have seen an accelerating trend in warfare whereby a growing proportion of conflict-related deaths have been caused by explosions. Analysis of blast injury features little in anthropological literature. ⋯ Potential indicators of blast trauma include blowout fractures in sinus cavities from blast overpressure, transverse mandibular fractures, and visceral surface rib fractures. Ability to recognize blast trauma and distinguish it in the skeleton is of importance in investigations and judicial proceedings relating to war crimes, terrorism, and human rights violations and likely to become increasingly crucial to forensic anthropology knowledge.
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In trauma patients, Enoxaparin (a low molecular weight heparin, LMWH) prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk reduction is unproven. ⋯ Prophylactic LMWH is associated with reduction of VTE in trauma patients.
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Newer studies have hypothesised about a coagulopathy that occurs early after trauma, early trauma induced coagulopathy, ETIC, and is defined by an elevated admission prothrombin time (PT). Also, referred to by some authors as acute traumatic coagulopathy, it has been most often studied in cohorts of severely injured or hypotensive patients. However, we wanted to prospectively investigate ETIC in a large all-comers cohort to confirm its prevalence across the entire spectrum of injury, to evaluate its risk pattern and to determine a possible relationship to reduced survival. ⋯ ETIC is an early, primary post-injury coagulopathy that occurs in 16.3% of admitted trauma patients. It is associated with an increase in mortality, even when controlling for crystalloids, vital signs, injury severity and head injury. It can also be found in approximately 11% of mildly injured patients (patients without physiological derangement or blood product administration). Therefore, further elucidation of ETIC is strategic to impacting trauma patient outcome.
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Comparative Study
Scope of Practice and Autonomy of Physician Assistants in Rural Versus Urban Emergency Departments.
This was a study of the scope of practice and autonomy of emergency medicine (EM) physician assistants (PAs) practicing in rural versus urban emergency departments (EDs). ⋯ Rural PAs reported a broader scope of practice, more autonomy, and less access to physician supervision than urban PAs.