Major cardiothoracic trauma: Eleven-year review of outcomes in the North West of England

Evaluate the incidence, topography, management, and outcomes in patients with polytrauma in the Suez Canal and Sinai areas

Introduction

The global prevalence of trauma-related mortality ranges from 2% to 32%; however, In Egypt, it reaches 8%. Trauma chiefly affects people in the productive age group; seriously ill patients with multiple injuries present with various levels of polytrauma. Application of incorrect triage systems and improperly trained trauma teams increase mortality and morbidity rates in non-dedicated institutions; however, these rates can decrease with appropriate infrastructure. This study aimed to improve the quality of care for patients with polytrauma through improved knowledge of the different severity levels of polytrauma and defined databases, using a suitable triage trauma system, well-trained trauma team, and appropriate infrastructure.

Methods

This observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the emergency department (ED), over a study period of 7 months, from August 10, 2019, to March 09, 2020. This study included 458 patients with polytrauma who had met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and attended the ED of Suez Canal University Hospital.

Results

The incidence of trauma among all emergency cases in the ED was 5.3%. However, most multiple injuries are mild, accounting for 44.4%, while 27.3% of the cases had life-threatening injuries. Moreover, 41.9% of the patients were managed non-operatively, whereas 58.1% of the patients required surgical interventions. Concerning the outcome, 56% and 6.9% of patients with and without life-threatening injuries respectively, died.

Conclusion

Facilities of the highest quality should be available for patients with polytrauma, especially those with life-threatening injuries. In addition, training emergency medical service staff for trauma triage is essential, and at least one tertiary hospital is required in every major city in the Suez Canal and Sinai areas to decrease trauma-related mortality.

Characteristics and outcome of traumatic chest injury patients visited a specialized hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A one-year retrospective study

PURPOSE

Injury continues to be an important cause of morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. Globally, it is responsible for approximately 5.8 million deaths per year and 91% of these deaths occur in developing countries. Road traffic collision, suicides and homicides are the leading cause of traumatic deaths. Despite the fact that traumatic chest injury is being responsible for 10% of all trauma-related hospital admissions and 25% of trauma-related deaths across the world including in Ethiopia, only few published studies showed the burden of traumatic chest injury in Ethiopia. So, this study aims at assessing the characteristics and outcome of traumatic chest injury patients visited Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital (TASH) over one year period.

METHODS

A single center based retrospective study was done. We collected data from patients' records to assess characteristics and outcome of traumatic chest injury at TASH over one year period. All patients diagnosed with traumatic chest injury and received treatment at the hospital from January 1 to December 31, 2016 regardless of its types and severity levels were included in the study. Patients with incomplete medical records for at least 20% of the study variables and without detailed medical history, or patients died before receiving any health care were excluded from the study. The collected data were cleaned and entered into Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS Version 21.0 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine factors associated with outcome of traumatic chest injury patients.

RESULTS

A total of 192 chest injury patients were included in the study and about one-fourth of chest injury victims were died during treatment period in TASH. Road traffic collision (RTC) was the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among traumatic chest injury victims. Age of the victims (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 8.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.51-53.24), time elapsed between the occurrence of traumatic chest injury and admission to health care facilities (AOR 4.6, 95% CI 1.19-18.00), length of stay in hospital (AOR 0.12, 95% CI 0.02-0.58), presence of multiple extra-thoracic injury (AOR 25, 95% CI 4.18-150.02) and development of complications (AOR 23, 95% CI 10-550) were factors associated with death among traumatic chest injury patients in this study.

CONCLUSION

RTC contributed for a considerable number of traumatic chest injuries in this study. Old age, delay in delivering the victim to health care facilities, length of stay in hospital, and development of atelectasis and pneumonia were associated with death among traumatic chest injury patients. Road safety interventions, establishment of organized pre-hospital services, and early recognition and prompt management of traumatic chest injury related complications are urgently needed to overcome the underlying problems in the study setting.

Sternotomy for Hemorrhage Control in Trauma

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the injuries, mechanisms, and outcomes in trauma patients undergoing sternotomy for hemorrhage control (SHC). The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of mortality for SHC and provide a descriptive analysis of the use of SHC in trauma. We hypothesize blunt trauma is associated with higher mortality compared with penetrating trauma among trauma patients requiring SHC.

METHODS

The Trauma Quality Improvement Program (2013-2016) database was queried for adult patients undergoing SHC within 24 h of admission. Patients with blunt and penetrating trauma were compared using chi-square and Mann-Whitney U-test. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to determine the risk of mortality.

RESULTS

Of 584 patients undergoing SHC, 322 (55.1%) were involved in penetrating trauma, and 69 (11.8%) were involved in blunt. The blunt trauma group had a higher median injury severity score (31.5 versus 25.0; P < 0.001) compared with the penetrating group. The median time to hemorrhage control was longer in those with blunt compared with penetrating trauma (84.6 versus 49.8 min; P < 0.001). The mortality rate was higher in patients with blunt compared with penetrating trauma (29.0% versus 12.7%; P < 0.001). However, after adjusting for covariates, there was no difference in risk of mortality between blunt and penetrating trauma (P = 0.06).

CONCLUSIONS

Trauma patients requiring SHC after blunt trauma had a higher mortality rate than those in penetrating trauma. After adjusting for predictors of mortality, there was no difference in risk of mortality despite nearly double the time to hemorrhage control in patients presenting after blunt trauma.

The use of computed tomography for penetrating heart injury screening

OBJECTIVE

to determine if computed tomography represents a safe option for penetrating heart injury screening.

METHODS

retrospective transversal study which confronted tomographic findings with the ones detected in surgical exploration in patients that had undergone surgery because of suspected cardiac trauma from January, 2016 to January, 2018.

RESULTS

seventy-two cases were analysed; 97.2% of them were males, and the most prevalent age range was 20 to 29 years; 56.9% of them presented injuries caused by firearm shots and 43.1% by cutting weapons. In 20 cases, computed tomography suggested heart injury, confirmed in 13 cases during surgery. Sensitivity of computed tomography was 56.5%, reaching a specificity of 85.7%.

CONCLUSION

computed tomography must not be adopted as a routine for the screening of penetrating heart injuries.

Thoracic Trauma: Which Chest Tube When and Where?

Clinical suspicion of hemo/pneumothorax: when in doubt, drain the chest. Stable chest trauma with hemo/pneumothorax: drain and wait. Unstable patient with dislocated trachea must be approached with drain in hand and scalpel ready. Massive hemo/pneumothorax may be controlled by drainage alone. The surgeon should not hesitate to open the chest if too much blood drains over a short period. The chest drainage procedure does not end with the last stitch; the second half of the match is still ahead. The drained patient is in need of physiotherapy and proper pain relief with an extended pleural space: control the suction system.

Faecal Carriage of Gram-Negative Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria among Patients Hospitalized in Two Centres in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Gram-negative multidrug-resistant organisms (GN-MDRO) producing β-lactamases (ESBL, plasmid-mediated AmpC β-lactamases and carbapenemases) are increasingly reported throughout Asia. The aim of this surveillance study was to determine the rate of bacterial colonization in patients from two hospitals in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. Rectal swabs were obtained from patients referred to the National Traumatology and Orthopaedics Research Centre (NTORC) or the Burn Treatment Centre (BTC) between July and September 2014, on admission and again after 14 days. Bacteria growing on selective chromogenic media (CHROMagar ESBL/KPC) were identified by MALDI-ToF MS. We performed susceptibility testing by disk diffusion and PCR (bla_IMP-1, bla_VIM, bla_GES, bla_NDM, bla_KPC, bla_OXA-48, bla_GIM-1, bla_OXA-23, bla_OXA-24/40, bla_OXA-51, bla_OXA-58, bla_OXA-143, bla_OXA-235, bla_CTX-M, bla_SHVbla_TEM and plasmid-mediated bla_AmpC). Carbapenemase-producing isolates were additionally genotyped by PFGE and MLST. During the study period 985 patients in the NTORC and 65 patients in the BTC were screened on admission. The prevalence of GN-MDRO-carriage was 42.4% and 69.2% respectively (p<0.001). Due to the different medical specialities the two study populations differed significantly in age (p<0.029) and gender (p<0.001) with younger and more female patients in the burn centre (BTC). We did not observe a significant difference in colonization rate in the respective age groups in the total study population. In both centres most carriers were colonized with CTX-M-producing E. coli, followed by CTX-M-producing K. pneumoniae and CTX-M-producing E. cloacae. 158 patients from the NTORC were re-screened after 14 days of whom 99 had acquired a new GN-MDRO (p<0.001). Carbapenemases were detected in both centres in four OXA-58-producing A. baumannii isolates (ST642) and six VIM-2-producing P. aeruginosa isolates (ST235). This study shows a high overall prevalence of GN-MDRO in the study population and highlights the importance of routine surveillance, appropriate infection control practice and antibiotic prescribing policies to prevent further spread especially of carbapenemases.