Articles: trauma.
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Fractures pose serious health and socioeconomic consequences for individuals, their families, and societies more broadly. In many low-resource settings, case fatality and long-term sequelae after a fracture remain high due to individual- and system-level barriers affecting timely access to care. This scoping review explored the burden of fractures in Malawi using long bone fracture (LBF) as a case study by examining the epidemiology of these injuries, their consequences, and the accessibility of quality healthcare. Our aim is to not only describe the scale of the issue but to identify specific interventions that can help address the challenges faced in settings with limited resources and healthcare budgets. ⋯ To the best of our knowledge, this review represents the first comprehensive examination of the state of LBF and the health system's response in Malawi. The findings underscore the pressing need for a national trauma registry to accurately determine the actual burden of injuries and support a tailored approach to fracture care in Malawi. It is further evident that the health system in Malawi must be strengthen across all six building blocks to address obstacles to equitable access to high-quality fracture care.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Feb 2024
Postinjury multiple organ failure in polytrauma: more frequent and potentially less deadly with less crystalloid.
Recently, retrospective registry-based studies have reported the decreasing incidence and increasing mortality of postinjury multiple organ failure (MOF). We aimed to describe the current epidemiology of MOF following the introduction of haemostatic resuscitation. ⋯ The epidemiology of MOF continues to evolve. Our prospective cohort suggests an ageing population with increasing incidence of MOF, particularly in males, with little changes in injury or shock parameters, who are being resuscitated with less crystalloids, stay longer on ICU without improvement in survival.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Feb 2024
The most critically injured polytrauma patient mortality: should it be a measurement of trauma system performance?
The risk of death after traumatic injury in developed trauma systems is at an all-time low. Among 'major trauma' patients (injury severity score, ISS > 15), the risk of dying is less than 10%. This group contains critical polytrauma patients (ISS 50-75), with high risks of death. We hypothesized that the reduction in trauma mortality was driven by reduction in moderate injury severity and that death from critical polytrauma remained persistently high. ⋯ The improvement in trauma mortality over the past 20 years has not been experienced equally. The ISS50-75 critical polytrauma mortality is a practical group to capture. It could be a group for deeper study and reporting to drive improvement.
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Most patients who sustain a traumatic injury require outpatient follow-up. A common barrier to outpatient postadmission care is patient failure to follow-up. One of the most significant factors resulting in failure to follow-up is age more than 35 years. Recent work has shown that follow-up telephone calls reduce readmission rates. Our aim was to decrease no-show appointments by 10% in 12 months. ⋯ Reminder calls led to a 12.2% reduction in no-show rate and were an independent predictor of a patient's likelihood of attending their appointment. Other predictors of attendance included insurance status and abdominal injury.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Feb 2024
Outcomes of resuscitative and emergent thoracotomies following injury at the largest trauma center in Estonia.
An emergency department thoracotomy (EDT) is performed in critically injured patients after a recent or in an imminent cardiac arrest following trauma. Emergent thoracotomy (ET) or operation room thoracotomy is reserved for more stable patients. However, the number of these interventions performed in an European settings is limited. Thus, we initiated the current study to investigate outcomes and risk factors for mortality of patients required EDT or ET at the largest trauma center in Estonia. ⋯ EDT and ET outcomes in Estonian trauma system are comparable to similar advanced trauma systems in Europe. Patients with GCS > 8, signs of life in the ED and with isolated penetrating chest injury had the most favorable outcomes.