Clinical Re-Examination 10 or More Years After Polytrauma: Is There a Gender Related Difference?

[Interdisciplinary extremity board in the treatment of complex injuries]

BACKGROUND

Interdisciplinary case conferences are well-established in the field of oncology in order to provide the best possible treatment for patients with complex disease patterns which overlap several disciplines.

METHODS

After studying the available literature the aims, indications, frequency, patient enrolment and documentation modalities, disciplines necessary to create the reconstruction plan and evaluation parameters of the board, were agreed in an interdisciplinary discussion among colleagues. The utilization of the extremity board and demographic features of the cases presented in the extremity board within the first 6 months were subsequently descriptively analyzed.

RESULTS

The agreed primary aim of an extremity board is the timely and transparent preparation of a high-quality holistic reconstruction plan for optimized treatment of a challenging patient collective with complex injuries of the extremities. Decisive interfaces of an extremity board are the participation of interdisciplinary disciplines, established enrolment and documentation modalities and a longitudinal analysis of parameters of the acute medical treatment, the long-term function and quality of life of those affected. The patient collective so far mostly includes men under 40 years old with traumatic soft tissue defects and combined injuries. On average, reconstruction plans for 1-2 patients were approved in an interdisciplinary team per session.

CONCLUSION

The extremity board serves as a platform for coordinated planning of treatment for patients with complex injuries. The limited personnel and time resources represent the greatest challenge for the successful implementation. The extremity board enables a high degree of interdisciplinary networking. The digital registration and documentation modality within the internal hospital documentation system is of utmost relevance. The preparation of the reconstruction plan is of decisive importance for the qualitative success of treatment and the restoration of function. The longitudinal analysis of appropriate parameters is imperative to measure the quality of treatment.

Sex-Based Disparities in Timeliness of Trauma Care and Discharge Disposition

Importance

Differences in time to diagnostic and therapeutic measures can contribute to disparities in outcomes. However, whether there is an association of timeliness by sex for trauma patients is unknown.

Objective

To investigate whether sex-based differences in time to definitive interventions exist for trauma patients in the US and whether these differences are associated with outcomes.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This was a retrospective cohort study conducted from July 2020 to July 2021, using the 2013 to 2016 Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) databases from level I to III trauma centers in the US. Patients 18 years or older with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) greater than 15 and who carried diagnoses of traumatic brain injury, intra-abdominal injury, pelvic fracture, femur fracture, and spinal injury as a result of their trauma were included in the study. Data were analyzed from July 2020 to July 2021.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Primary outcomes assessed timeliness to interventions, using Wilcoxon signed rank and χ2 tests. Secondary outcomes included location of discharge after injury, using propensity score-matched generalized estimating equations modeling.

Results

Of the 28 332 patients included, 20 002 (70.6%) were male patients (mean [SD] age, 43.3 [18.2] years) and 8330 (29.4%) were female patients (mean [SD] age, 48.5 [21.1] years), with significantly different distributions of ISS scores (ISS score 16-24: male patient, 10 622 [53.1%]; female patient, 4684 [56.2%]; ISS score 41-74: male patient, 2052 [10.3%]; female patient, 852 [10.2%]). Male patients more frequently had abdominal (4257 [21.3%] vs 1268 [15.2%]) and spinal cord (3989 [20.0%] vs 1274 [15.3%]) injuries, whereas female patients experienced greater proportions of femur (3670 [44.0%] vs 8422 [42.1%]) and pelvic (3970 [47.6%] vs 6963 [34.8%]) fractures. Female patients experienced significantly longer emergency department length of stay (median [IQR], 184 [92-314] minutes vs 172 [86-289] minutes; P < .001), longer time in pretriage (median [IQR], 52 [36-80] minutes vs 49 [34-77] minutes; P < .001), and increased likelihood of discharge to nursing or long-term care facilities instead of home after matching by age, ISS, mechanism, and injury type (male patient:female patient, odds ratio, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.67-0.78).

Conclusions and Relevance

Results of this cohort study suggest that female trauma patients experienced slightly longer delays in trauma care and had a higher likelihood of discharge to long-term care facilities than their male counterparts.

Seven-year excess mortality, functional outcome and health status after trauma in Hong Kong

PURPOSE

The purpose was to investigate long-term health impacts of trauma and the aim was to describe the functional outcome and health status up to 7 years after trauma.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective, multi-centre cohort study of adult trauma patients admitted to three regional trauma centres with moderate or major trauma (ISS ≥ 9) in Hong Kong (HK). Patients were followed up at regular time points (1, 6 months and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years) by telephone using extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE) and the Short-Form 36 (SF36). Observed annual mortality rate was compared with the expected mortality rate estimated using the HK population cohort. Linear mixed model (LMM) analyses examined the changes in SF36 with subgroups of age ≥ 65 years, ISS > 15, and GOSE ≥ 5 over time.

RESULTS

At 7 years, 115 patients had died and 48% (138/285) of the survivors responded. The annual mortality rate (AMR) of the trauma cohort was consistently higher than the expected mortality rate from the general population. Forty-one percent of respondents had upper good recovery (GOSE = 8) at 7 years. Seven-year mean PCS and MCS were 45.06 and 52.06, respectively. LMM showed PCS improved over time in patients aged < 65 years and with baseline GOSE ≥ 5, and the MCS improved over time with baseline GOSE ≥ 5. Higher mortality rate, limited functional recovery and worse physical health status persisted up to 7 years post-injury.

CONCLUSION

Long-term mortality and morbidity should be monitored for Asian trauma centre patients to understand the impact of trauma beyond hospital discharge.

The Importance of Sex Differences on Outcome after Major Trauma: Clinical Outcome in Women Versus Men

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate epidemiological and clinically relevant sex-related differences in polytraumatized patients at a Level 1 Trauma Center. Methods: 646 adult patients (210 females and 436 males) who were classified as polytraumatized (at the point of admission) and treated at our Level I Trauma Center were reviewed and included in this study. Demographic data as well as mechanism of injury, injury severity, injury pattern, frequency of preclinical intubation, hemodynamic variables on admission, time of mechanical ventilation and of intensive care unit (ICU) treatment, as well as the incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi organ failure (MOF), and mortality were extracted and analyzed. Results: A total of 210 female and 436 male patients formed the basis of this report. Females showed a higher mean age (44.6 vs. 38.3 years; p < 0.0001) than their male counterparts. Women were more likely to be injured as passengers or by suicidal falls whereas men were more likely to suffer trauma as motorcyclists. Following ICU treatment, female patients resided significantly longer at the casualty ward than men (27.1 days vs. 20.4 days, p = 0.013) although there was no significant difference regarding injury severity, hemodynamic variables on admission, and incidence of MOF, ARDS, and mortality. Conclusion: The positive correlation of higher age and longer in-hospital stay in female trauma victims seems to show women at risk for a prolonged in-hospital rehabilitation time. A better understanding of the impact of major trauma in women (but also men) will be an important component of efforts to improve trauma care and long-term outcome.

[Quality of life after multiple trauma]

BACKGROUND

Multiple trauma is an independent injury pattern which, because of its complexity, is responsible for 25 % of the costs for the treatment of all injured patients. Because of the often long-lasting physical impairment and the high incidence of residual permanent handicaps, it is apparent that multiple trauma can lead to a reduction in patient quality of life.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to give an overview of the known data concerning the change in quality of life for multiple trauma patients. Furthermore, predictors for the reduction of quality of life after multiple trauma will be identified.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A MedLine search was performed to identify studies dealing with the outcome after multiple trauma.

RESULTS

In addition to functional outcome parameters, the term quality of life has become more important in recent years when it comes to evaluating the outcome following injury. While the mortality after multiple trauma could be significantly reduced over the years, there is no comparable effect on the quality of life. Predictors for a worse quality of life after multiple trauma are female gender, high age, low social status, concomitant head injuries and injury to the lower extremities.

CONCLUSION

The fact that mortality after multiple trauma has decreased but not impairment of the quality of life makes it clear that in addition to the acute medical treatment, a follow-up treatment including not only physiotherapy but also psychotherapy is crucial for multiple trauma patients.

Health outcome after major trauma: what are we measuring?

Importance

Trauma is a global disease and is among the leading causes of disability in the world. The importance of outcome beyond trauma survival has been recognised over the last decade. Despite this there is no internationally agreed approach for assessment of health outcome and rehabilitation of trauma patients.

Objective

To systematically examine to what extent outcomes measures evaluate health outcomes in patients with major trauma.

Data Sources

MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL (from 2006–2012) were searched for studies evaluating health outcome after traumatic injuries.

Study selection and data extraction

Studies of adult patients with injuries involving at least two body areas or organ systems were included. Information on study design, outcome measures used, sample size and outcomes were extracted. The World Health Organisation International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF) were used to evaluate to what extent outcome measures captured health impacts.

Results

34 studies from 755 studies were included in the review. 38 outcome measures were identified. 21 outcome measures were used only once and only five were used in three or more studies. Only 6% of all possible health impacts were captured. Concepts related to activity and participation were the most represented but still only captured 12% of all possible concepts in this domain. Measures performed very poorly in capturing concepts related to body function (5%), functional activities (11%) and environmental factors (2%).

Conclusion

Outcome measures used in major trauma capture only a small proportion of health impacts. There is no inclusive classification for measuring disability or health outcome following trauma. The ICF may provide a useful framework for the development of a comprehensive health outcome measure for trauma care.

Penetrating thorax injury leads to mild systemic activation of neutrophils without inflammatory complications

INTRODUCTION

Trauma is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Thoracic injuries are associated with inflammatory complications such as ARDS. The pathogenesis of this complication after pulmonary injury is incompletely understood, but neutrophils are thought to play a pivotal role. The aim of this project was to gain more insight in the role of thoracic injuries in the pathophysiological processes that link systemic neutrophil activation with inflammatory complications after trauma.

METHODS

In this prospective cohort study fifty-five patients with isolated penetrating thoracic injury were included at a level one Trauma Unit. Blood samples were analysed for neutrophil phenotype with the use of flowcytometry within 3 h of trauma and repeated six and 24 h after injury. The presence of inflammatory complications (e.g. ARDS or sepsis/septic shock) was assessed during admission, and this was related to the neutrophil phenotpe.

RESULTS

The clinical follow-up of fifty-three patients was uneventful. Only two patients developed an inflammatory complication. Within 3 h after trauma, neutrophils showed a decreased expression of FcγRII (p=0.007) and FcγRIII (p=0.001) compared to healthy individuals. After 6 h, expression of active FcγRII (p=0.017), C5aR (p=0.004) and CAECAM8 (p=0.043) increased, whereas L-selectin (p=0.002) decreased. After 24 h also CXCR-2 (CD182) expression increased compared to healthy individuals (p=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Penetrating thoracic trauma leads to a distinct primed activation status of circulating neutrophils within hours. In addition to activation of cells, both young and reverse migrated neutrophils are released into the circulation. This degree of systemic inflammation does not exceed a threshold of inflammation that is needed for the development of inflammatory complications like ARDS.

Physical and psychological long-term outcome after traumatic brain injury in children and adult patients

Background

Several studies have indicated that younger age is associated with worse recovery after pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared to elder children. In order to verify this association between long-term outcome after moderate to severe TBI and patient’s age, direct comparison between different pediatric age groups as well as an adult population was performed.

Methods

This investigation represents a retrospective cohort study at a level I trauma center including patients with moderate to severe, isolated TBI with a minimum follow-up of 10 years. According to their age at time of injury, patients were divided in pre-school (0–7 years), school (8–17 years) and adult (18–65 years) patients. Physical examination and standardized questionnaire on physical and psychological aspects (Glasgow Outcome Scale, Barthel Index, Impact of Event Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, short form 12) were performed.

Results

135 traumatized patients were included. Physical and psychological long-term outcome was associated with injury severity but not with patients’ age at time of injury. Outcome recovery measured by Glasgow Outcome Scale was demonstrated with best results for pre-school aged children (p = 0.009). According to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale an increased incidence of anxiety (p = 0.010) and depression (p = 0.026) was evaluated in older patients.

Conclusion

Long-term outcome perceptions after moderate to severe TBI presented in this study question current views of deteriorated recovery for the immature brain. The sustained TBI impact seemed not to reduce the child’s ability to overcome the suffered impairment measured by questionnaire based psychological, physical and health related outcome scores. These results distinguish the relevance of rehabilitation and family support in the long term.

Subjective impact of traumatic brain injury on long-term outcome at a minimum of 10 years after trauma- first results of a survey on 368 patients from a single academic trauma center in Germany

Background

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) may lead to significant impairments in personal, social and professional life. However, knowledge of the influence on long-term outcome after TBI is sparse. We therefore aimed to investigate the subjective effects of TBI on long-term outcome at a minimum of 10 years after trauma in one of the largest study populations in Germany.

Methods

The current investigation represents a retrospective cohort study at a level I trauma center including physical examination or standardized questionnaires of patients with mild, moderate or severe isolated TBI with a minimum follow-up of 10 years. We investigated the subjective physical, psychological and social outcome evaluating the Glasgow Outcome Scale, short-form 12, and social as well as vocational living circumstances.

Results

368 patients aged 0 to 88 years were included. Patients with severe TBI were younger compared to patients with moderate or mild TBI (p < 0.05). Patients with severe TBI lived more often as single after the trauma impact. A significantly worse outcome was associated with higher severity of TBI resulting in an increased incidence of mental disability. A professional decline was analyzed in case of severe TBI resulting in significant loss of salary.

Conclusions

The severity of TBI significantly influenced the subjective social and living conditions. Subjective mental and physical outcome as well as professional life depended on the severity of TBI 10 years after the injury.

Does additional head trauma affect the long-term outcome after upper extremity trauma in multiple traumatized patients: is there an additional effect of traumatic brain injury?

BACKGROUND

Musculoskeletal injuries are common in patients with multiple trauma resulting in pain, functional deficits, and disability. Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are common in severely injured patients potentially resulting in neurological impairment and permanent disability that would add to that from the musculoskeletal injuries. However, it is unclear to what degree the combination affects impairment.

QUESTIONS/PURPOSES

We therefore asked whether added upper extremity injuries or TBI worsened the functional, psychological, and vocational status in multiple trauma patients.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed 281 patients with multiple trauma: 229 with upper extremity injuries but without TBI (Group I), 32 with concomitant upper extremity injuries and TBI (Group II), and 20 with TBI but no upper extremity injuries (Group III). We assessed patients with the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS), Hannover Score for Polytrauma Outcome, SF-12 (Physical Component Summary Score and Mental Component Summary Score), medical aid requirements, need of psychological support, and vocational living circumstances. The minimum followup was 10 years (median, 17.5 years; range, 10-28 years).

RESULTS

Additional TBI in multiple trauma patients led to reduced function (GOS: Group I: 4.9 ± 0.2, Group II: 4.5 ± 0.7, Group III: 4.5 ± 0.8) resulting in vocational restrictions (job change: Group I: 74%, Group II: 91%, Group III: 90%). The combination of upper extremity and TBIs did not result in worse long-term scores compared with TBI alone.

CONCLUSIONS

Rehabilitation and social reintegration in multiple trauma patients with TBI requires particular emphasis to minimize disability and vocational isolation. Musculoskeletal injuries should not be neglected to ensure the maximum extremity function given the impaired cognitive functions after TBI.

CK/CK-MB ratio as an indirect predictor for survival in polytraumatized patients

BACKGROUND

Accurate assessment of injury severity is critical for decision making related to the prevention, triage, and treatment of several injured patients. Early estimation of mortality risk of critically injured patients is mandatory for adequate therapeutic strategies. Current risk stratification relies on clinical diagnosis and scoring systems. In our study, we hypothesized whether a simple laboratory test, the CK/CK-MB ratio, could help improving risk prediction in severely traumatized patients.

METHODS

In a 9-year period, 328 nonselected trauma patients were included in our retrospective study at a Level I Trauma Center up to September 2002. Data for this study were obtained from our computerized trauma database, established in September 1992.

RESULTS

In our study population, we could show a negative correlation between Injury Severity Score (ISS) and leukocytes. A positive correlation was detected for liver enzymes and CK-MB. The correlation between ISS and Na(+) was significant. No correlation between ISS, K(+), and Hb/Ht could be observed. Exitus was associated with ISS, alteration in thrombocytes, CK, CK-MB, CRP, Crea, and Na(+).

CONCLUSION

In our study population, CK-MB levels showed a significant correlation with overall surveillance in polytraumatized patients. In our opinion, this might suggest that CK-MB levels could be taken as an indirect predictor for survival. Our findings need to be proven in further prospective clinical trials.