Blunt Pharyngoesophageal Injuries: Current Management Strategies

BACKGROUND:

Blunt pharyngoesophageal injuries pose a management challenge to the trauma surgeon. The purpose of this study was to explore whether these injuries can be managed expectantly without neck exploration.

METHODS:

The National Trauma Databank datasets 2007-2011 were reviewed for blunt trauma patients who sustained a pharyngeal injury, including an injury to the cervical esophagus. Patients who survived over 24 h and were not transferred from other institutions were divided into two groups based on whether a neck exploration was performed. Outcomes included mortality and hospital stay.

RESULTS:

A total of 545 (0.02%) patients were identified. The median age was 18 years and 69% were male. Facial fractures were found in 16%, while 13% had an associated traumatic brain injury. Of the 284 patients who survived over 24 h and were not transferred from another institution, 65 (23%) underwent a neck exploration. The injury burden was significantly higher in this group as indicated by the higher median Injury Severity Score (17 vs 10, p < 0.01) and need for intensive care unit admission (75% vs 31%, p < 0.01). The overall mortality was 2%: 3.1% for neck explorations versus 1.6% for conservative management (adjusted p = 0.54). Neck exploration patients were more likely to remain longer in the hospital (median 13 vs 10 days, adjusted p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION:

Pharyngoesophageal injuries are rare following blunt trauma. Only a quarter require a neck exploration and this decision appears to be dictated by the injury burden. Selective non-operative management based on clinical status seems to be feasible and is not associated with increased mortality.

Insulin-dependent diabetes and serious trauma

PURPOSE

Trauma patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) represent a unique population as the acute injury and the underlying disease may both cause hyperglycemia that leads to poor outcomes. We investigated how insulin-dependent DM (IDDM) and noninsulin-dependent DM (NIDDM) impact mortality after serious trauma without brain injury.

METHODS

The National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) version 7.0 was queried for all patients with moderate to severe traumatic injury [injury severity score (ISS) >9]. Patients were excluded if missing data, age <10 years, severe brain injury [head abbreviated injury scale (AIS) >3], dead on arrival or any AIS = 6. Logistic regression modeled the association between DM and mortality as well as IDDM, NIDDM and mortality.

RESULTS

Overall 166,103 trauma patients without brain injury were analyzed. Mortality was 7.6 and 4.4 % in patients with and without DM, respectively (p < 0.01). Mortality was 9.9 % for patients with IDDM and 6.7 % for NIDDM (p < 0.01). The increased mortality associated with DM was only significantly higher for DM patients in their forties (5.6 vs. 3.3 %, p < 0.01). Regression analyses demonstrated that DM (AOR 1.14, p = 0.04) and IDDM (AOR 1.46, p < 0.01) were predictors of mortality compared to no DM, but NIDDM was not (AOR 1.02, p = 0.83).

CONCLUSIONS

While DM was a predictor for higher mortality after serious trauma, this increase was only observed in IDDM and not NIDDM. Our findings suggest IDDM patients who present after serious trauma are unique and attention to their hyperglycemia and related insulin therapy may play a critical role in recovery.

Increasing intent to donate in Hispanic American high school students: results of a prospective observational study

BACKGROUND

High school students are an important target audience for organ donation education. A novel educational intervention focused on Hispanic American (HA) high school students might improve organ donation rates.

METHODS

A prospective observational study was conducted in five Los Angeles High Schools with a high percentage of HA students. A "culturally sensitive" educational program was administered to students in grades 9 to 12. Preintervention surveys that assessed awareness, knowledge, perception, and beliefs regarding donation as well as the intent to become an organ donor were compared to postintervention surveys.

RESULTS

A total of 10,146 high school students participated in the study. After exclusions, 4876 preintervention and 3182 postintervention surveys were analyzed. A significant increase in the overall knowledge, awareness, and beliefs regarding donation was observed after the intervention, as evidenced by a significant increase in the percentage of correct answers on the survey (41% pre- versus 44% postintervention, P < .0001). When specifically examining HA students, there was a significant increase in the intent to donate organs (adjusted odds ratio 1.21, 95% confidence interval: 1.09, 1.34, P = .0003).

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to demonstrate a significant increase in the intent to donate among HA high school students following an educational intervention.

Spatial and temporal integration of signals in foveal line orientation

The discrimination of the orientation of a line improves with line length, reaching an optimum when a foveal line is approximately 0.5 degrees long. We studied the effect of eliminating sections of the line, of displacing them out of alignment, and of delaying them. Orientation discrimination thresholds are only a little elevated when a 25-arcmin line is replaced by three equally spaced collinear 5-arcmin segments. Two collinear 5-arcmin segments show better thresholds than a single one when they are separated by as much as 20 arcmin. But thresholds are impaired by bringing line segments out of collinearity by as little as 1 arcmin. Asynchrony of up to 50 ms can be tolerated, but when the middle segment of a three-line pattern is delayed by approximately 100 ms there is active inhibition, thresholds being now higher than when the middle segment is absent. It is concluded that for signals to address the orientation discrimination mechanism optimally, they have to be contained inside a narrow spatial corridor and be presented within a time window of approximatley 50 ms, but that some spatial summation can take place over a length of > or = 0.5 degrees in the fovea. Because short lines made of black and white collinear segments do not have good orientation thresholds, whereas longer and interrupted lines do, it is concluded that what is involved is potentiating interaction between collinearly arranged neurons with identical orientation selectivity rather than summation of signals within the receptive fields of single neurons.