Victims of the Palestinian uprising (Intifada): a retrospective review of 220 cases

Anthropogenic Disasters

Anthropogenic disasters may be defined as any disaster caused by human action or inaction. Natural disasters occur without human interference. Injuries caused by terrorists and related criminal activities may be broadly grouped into 3 categories: blunt, blast, and penetrating trauma. Most terrorist and criminal activities that create a mass-casualty situation are performed using the weapons most readily available, such as firearms or explosives. A consistent pattern, comparing terrorism with interpersonal violence, is the greater severity of impact on the victim.

Israeli hospital preparedness for terrorism-related multiple casualty incidents: can the surge capacity and injury severity distribution be better predicted?

BACKGROUND

The incidence of large-scale urban attacks on civilian populations has significantly increased across the globe over the past decade. These incidents often result in Hospital Multiple Casualty Incidents (HMCI), which are very challenging to hospital teams. 15 years ago the Emergency and Disaster Medicine Division in the Israeli Ministry of Health defined a key of 20 percent of each hospital's bed capacity as its readiness for multiple casualties. Half of those casualties are expected to require immediate medical treatment. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the current readiness guidelines based on the epidemiology of encountered HMCIs.

METHODS

A retrospective study of HMCIs was recorded in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) home front command and the Israeli National Trauma Registry (ITR) between November 2000 and June 2003. An HMCI is defined by the Emergency and Disaster Medicine Division in the Israeli Ministry of Health as >or=10 casualties or >or=4 suffering from injuries with an ISS>or=16 arriving to a single hospital.

RESULTS

The study includes a total of 32 attacks, resulting in 62 HMCIs and 1292 casualties. The mean number of arriving casualties to a single hospital was 20.8+/-13.3 (range 4-56, median 16.5). In 95% of the HMCIs the casualty load was <or=52. Based on severity scores and ED discharges 1022 (79.2%) casualties did not necessitate immediate medical treatment.

CONCLUSION

Hospital preparedness can be better defined by a fixed number of casualties rather than a percentile of its bed capacity. Only 20% of the arriving casualties will require immediate medical treatment. Implementation of this concept may improve the utilisation of national emergency health resources both in the preparation phase and on real time.

[General surgery]

Terrorist explosions with multiple victims produce disaster situations that test health systems' ability to respond. The Gregorio Maranon University Hospital attended more than 300 victims within a few hours. Most of these victims had mild or moderate lesions, although 29 patients arrived in a serious or critical condition. In the first 24 hours, 37 major surgical interventions were performed in 34 patients. Of these, patients 7 underwent laparotomy, 2 of which were negative and one was non-therapeutic. One patient died during reintervention for damage limitation. Three angiographic embolizations were performed for bleeding of the intercostal artery, liver and liver-spleen, respectively and hemostasis was achieved in all three patients. The most common lesions and visceral injuries in particular were similar to those described in previous reports of similar situations. We reflect on our experience and discuss data from the literature.

Casualties treated at the closest hospital in the Madrid, March 11, terrorist bombings

BACKGROUND

At 07:39 am on March 11th, 2004, ten terrorist bomb explosions occurred almost simultaneously in four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing instantly 177 people and injuring >2,000. There were 14 subsequent in-hospital deaths, bringing the definite death toll to 191 victims. This article describes the organization of the clinical management and patterns of injuries in casualties who were taken to the closest hospital, with emphasis on the critical patient population.

RESULTS

There were 312 patients taken to that center, and 91 were hospitalized, 89 of them (28.5%) for >24 hrs. Sixty-two patients only had superficial bruises or emotional shock, but the remaining 250 patients had more severe lesions. The data on 243 of the latter form the basis of this report. Tympanic perforation occurred in 41% of 243 victims with moderate-to-severe trauma, chest injuries in 40%, shrapnel wounds in 36%, fractures in 18%, first- or second-degree burns in 18%, eye lesions in 18%, head trauma in 12%, and abdominal injuries in 5%. Between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, 34 surgical interventions were performed on 32 victims. Twenty-nine casualties (12% of the total or 32.5% of those hospitalized) were deemed in critical condition, and two of them died within minutes of arrival. The other 27 survived to be admitted to intensive care units, and three of them died, bringing the critical mortality rate to 17.2% (5/29). The mean Injury Severity Score and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores of critical patients were 34 and 23, respectively. Among these critical patients, soft-tissue and musculoskeletal injuries predominated in 85% of cases, ear blast injury was identified in 67%, and blast lung injury was present in 63% (17 cases). Fifty-two percent suffered head trauma.

CONCLUSIONS

There was probably an overtriage to the closest hospital, and the time of the blasts proved crucial for the adequacy of the medical and surgical response. The number of blast lung injuries seen is probably the largest reported by a single institution, and the critical mortality rate was reasonably low.

11 March 2004: The terrorist bomb explosions in Madrid, Spain--an analysis of the logistics, injuries sustained and clinical management of casualties treated at the closest hospital

At 07:39 on 11 March 2004, 10 terrorist bomb explosions occurred almost simultaneously in four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 177 people instantly and injuring more than 2000. There were 14 subsequent in-hospital deaths, bringing the ultimate death toll to 191. This report describes the organization of clinical management and patterns of injuries in casualties who were taken to the closest hospital, with an emphasis on the critically ill. A total of 312 patients were taken to the hospital and 91 patients were hospitalized, of whom 89 (28.5%) remained in hospital for longer than 24 hours. Sixty-two patients had only superficial bruises or emotional shock, but the remaining 250 patients had more severe injuries. Data on 243 of these 250 patients form the basis of this report. Tympanic perforation occurred in 41% of 243 victims with moderate-to-severe trauma, chest injuries in 40%, shrapnel wounds in 36%, fractures in 18%, first-degree or second-degree burns in 18%, eye lesions in 18%, head trauma in 12% and abdominal injuries in 5%. Between 08:00 and 17:00, 34 surgical interventions were performed in 32 patients. Twenty-nine casualties (12% of the total, or 32.5% of those hospitalized) were deemed to be in a critical condition, and two of these died within minutes of arrival. The other 27 survived to admission to intensive care units, and three of them died, bringing the critical mortality rate to 17.2% (5/29). The mean Injury Severity Score and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores for critically ill patients were 34 and 23, respectively. Among these critically ill patients, soft tissue and musculoskeletal injuries predominated in 85% of cases, ear blast injury was identified in 67% and blast lung injury was present in 63%. Fifty-two per cent suffered head trauma. Over-triage to the closest hospital probably occurred, and the time of the blasts proved to be crucial to the the adequacy of the medical and surgical response. The number of blast lung injuries seen is probably the largest reported by a single institution, and the critical mortality rate was reasonably low.