Validation for Abbreviated Hospital Stay in Pediatric Patients with Solid Organ Injury

BACKGROUND

In 2000, the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) published guidelines for the management of pediatric solid organ injury, recommending a hospital length of stay (LOS) of grade of injury plus 1 day. Since the publication of these guidelines, several studies have suggested that it is safe to discharge patients sooner based upon hemodynamic and clinical factors. The results of several of these studies have been confounded by the existence of other injuries. The aim of this study was to examine LOS and outcomes in children with strictly isolated solid organ injuries.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This is a 12-year retrospective review of pediatric patients with isolated trauma to the kidney, liver, or spleen to determine LOS. Patients were excluded for associated intracranial, neurologic, orthopedic, or pulmonary injuries which would impact length of stay. Documented hemodynamic parameters were reviewed as determinants of patient stability.

RESULTS

A total of 156 patients were included in the study. The projected average LOS for all patients based on the 2000 APSA guidelines would have been 3.71 ± 0.98 days. The actual average LOS for all patients 2.85 ± 3.32 days. Need for operation, ICU stay, and transfusion all contributed to increased LOS. The number of episodes of abnormal vitals positively correlated with increased LOS.

DISCUSSION

This study validates that management of isolated solid organ injuries based upon hemodynamic parameters and clinical status is safe and decreases hospital length of stay. Consistently normal vital signs indicate these children can be safely discharged sooner.

Pseudoaneurysm Screening after Pediatric High Grade Solid Organ Injury

BACKGROUND

High grade solid organ injuries carry risk of complications, including pseudoaneurysms (PSA). The optimal approach to PSA screening among pediatric patients is unknown and may include delayed Computed Tomography Angiography (dCTA) and/or contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). This study endeavored to define dCTA/CEUS yield in PSA diagnosis after pediatric high grade solid organ injury.

METHODS

Patients <18y presenting to our ACS-verified Level 1 trauma center with ≥1 AAST grade ≥3 abdominal solid organ injury (kidney, liver, and spleen) were included (01/2017-10/2021). Transfers in, death <48h, and immediate nephrectomy/splenectomy were exclusions. PSA screening was pursued selectively based on attending discretion. Demographics, clinical/injury data, and outcomes were collected. Primary outcome was performance of dCTA or CEUS.

RESULTS

Forty-two patients satisfied criteria, with median age 12.5y and ISS 22. Liver injuries were most frequent (48%), followed by spleen (33%) and kidney (19%). Initial management strategy was most commonly nonoperative (liver 60%, spleen 64%, kidney 75%). Overall, 26% underwent PSA screening at a median of hospital day 4, with dCTA (21%) or CEUS (5%). CEUS was only used among liver injuries (10%), with no PSA identified. One PSA was diagnosed on dCTA after splenic injury and was managed with observation.

CONCLUSION

PSA screening occurs infrequently after pediatric high grade solid organ injury, potentially due to concerns about radiation exposure from dCTA which would be mitigated with CEUS. Further delineation of PSA incidence and yield of screening investigations are needed to avoid missing this important diagnosis and to determine the diagnostic accuracy of dCTA and CEUS.

Association of Time to Definitive Hemostasis With Mortality in Patients With Solid Organ Injuries

Introduction The Golden Hour is a term used in the trauma setting to refer to the first 60 minutes after injury. Traditionally, definitive care within this period was believed to dramatically increase a patient's survival. Though the period of 60 minutes is unlikely to represent a point of distinct inflection in survival, the effect of time to definitive care on survival remains incompletely understood. This study aims to measure the association of time to definitive hemostasis with mortality in patients with solid organ injuries as well as the effect of survival bias and a form of selection bias known as indication by severity on the relationship between time to treatment and survival. Methodology This is a retrospective cohort study using data obtained from the American College of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) from the years 2017 through 2019 selecting patients treated for blunt liver, spleen, or kidney injury who required angioembolization or surgical hemostasis within six hours. A Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyze time to death. The association of probability of death with time was examined with a multivariate logistic regression initially treating the relationship as linear and subsequently transforming time to hemostasis with restricted cubic splines to model a non-linear association with the outcome. To model survival and indication by severity bias, we created a computer-generated data set and used LOESS regressions to display curves of the simulated data. Results The multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis shows a coefficient of negative 0.004 for minutes to hemostasis with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.9959 showing the adjusted hazard of death slightly diminishes with each increasing minute to hemostasis. The likelihood ratio chi-square difference between the model with time to hemostasis included as a linear term versus the model with the restricted cubic spline transformation is 97.46 (p<0.0001) showing the model with restricted cubic splines is a better fit for the data. The computer-generated data simulating treatment of solid organ injury with no programmed bias displays an almost linear association of mortality with increased treatment delay. When indications by severity bias and survival bias are introduced, the risk of death decreases with time to hemostasis as in the real-world data. Conclusion Decreasing mortality with increasing delay to hemostasis in trauma patients with solid organ injury is likely due to confounding due to indication by severity and survival bias. After taking these biases into account, the association of delayed hemostasis with better survival is not likely due to the benefit of delay but rather the delay sorts patients by severity of injury with those more likely to die being treated first. These biases are extremely difficult to eliminate which limits the ability to measure the true effect of delay with retrospective data. The findings may however be of value as a predictive model to anticipate the acuity of a patient after an interval of unavoidable delay such as with a long transfer time.

In Solid Organ Injury Patients Requiring Blood Transfusion, Hemostatic Procedures are Associated with Improved Survival Over Observation

Introduction

Selective nonoperative management (NOM) is the standard of care for blunt solid organ injury (SOI). Hemodynamic instability is a contraindication for NOM, but it is unclear whether the need for blood transfusion should be a criterion for instability. This study looks at the outcome of blood-transfused SOI patients to determine whether NOM is safe for this group.

Methods

This is a retrospective cohort study using the National Trauma Data Bank years 2017 through 2019. We selected patients with blunt liver, spleen, and kidney injuries. Within this group, we compared the mortality for those managed with NOM versus the hemostatic procedures of laparotomy and angioembolization. Significance for univariate analysis is tested with Chi-square for categorical variables. Multivariate analysis is performed with Cox proportional hazards regression with time-dependent covariate.

Results

108,718 (3.5%) patients for the years 2017 through 2019 had a SOI. 20,569 (18.9%) of these received at least one unit of packed red blood cells (PRBCs) within the first 4 h. Of the SOI patients who received blood, 8264 (40.2%) underwent laparotomy only, 2924 (14.2%) underwent embolization only, and 1119 (5.4%) underwent both procedures. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of death for transfused SOI patients who underwent laparotomy only, embolization only, and both procedures are 0.93 (P = not significant), 0.27 (P < 0.001), and 0.48 (P < 0.001), respectively. The ORs of death with laparotomy for patients receiving >1 through 4 units are 0.87, 0.78, 0.75, and 0.72, respectively (P ≤ 0.01 for all). For embolization, the ORs are 0.27, 0.30, 0.30, and 0.30, respectively (P < 0.001 for all).

Conclusion

Laparotomy is independently associated with survival for patients who receive >1 unit of PRBCs. Angioembolization is independently associated with survival for the entire cohort, including transfused patients. Given the protective association of laparotomy in the blood-transfused SOI group, need for blood transfusion should be considered a meaningful index of instability and a relative indication for laparotomy. The protective association with angioembolization supports current practices for angioembolization of high-risk patients in the transfused and nontransfused groups.

General Surgery Resident Operative Experiences in Solid Organ Injury: An Examination of Case Logs

BACKGROUND

Non-operative management (NOM) of traumatic solid organ injury (SOI) has become commonplace. This paradigm shift, along with reduced resident work hours, has significantly impacted surgical residents' operative trauma experiences. We examined ongoing changes in residents' operative SOI experience since duty hour restriction implementation, and assessed whether missed operative experiences were gained elsewhere in the resident experience.

METHODS

We examined data from American College of Graduate Medical Education case log reports from 2003 to 2018. We collected mean case volumes in the categories of non-operative trauma, trauma laparotomy, and splenic, hepatic, and pancreatic trauma operations; case volumes for comparable non-traumatic solid organ operations were also collected. Solid organ injury operative volumes were compared against non-traumatic cases, and change over time was analyzed.

RESULTS

Over the study period, both trauma laparotomies and non-operative traumas increased significantly (P < .001). In contrast, operative volumes for splenic, hepatic, and pancreatic trauma all significantly decreased (P < .001; P = .014; P < .001, respectively). Non-traumatic spleen cases also significantly decreased (P < .001), but liver cases and distal pancreatectomies increased (P < .001; P = .017). Pancreaticoduodenectomies increased, albeit not to a significant degree (P = .052).

CONCLUSIONS

Continuing increases in NOM of SOI correlate with declining resident experience with operative solid organ trauma. These decreases can adversely affect residents' technical skills and decision-making, although trends in specific non-traumatic areas may help to mitigate such losses. Further work should determine the impact of these trends on resident competence and autonomy.

Hospital-based intervention is rarely needed for children with low-grade blunt abdominal solid organ injury: An analysis of the Trauma Quality Improvement Program registry

BACKGROUND

Children with low-grade blunt solid organ injury (SOI) have historically been admitted to an inpatient setting for monitoring, but the evidence supporting the necessity of this practice is lacking. The purpose of this study was to quantify the frequency and timing of intervention for hemorrhage and to describe hospital-based resource utilization for low-grade SOI in the absence of other major injuries (OMIs).

METHODS

A cohort of children (aged <16 years) with blunt American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grade 1 or 2 SOI from the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program registry (2007-2017) was analyzed. Children were excluded if they had confounding factors associated with intervention for hemorrhage (comorbidities, OMIs, or extra-abdominal surgical procedures). Outcomes included frequency and timing of intervention (laparotomy, angiography, or transfusion) for hemorrhage, as well as hospital-based resource utilization.

RESULTS

A total of 1,019 children were identified with low-grade blunt SOI and no OMIs. Nine hundred eighty-six (96.8%) of these children were admitted to an inpatient unit. Admitted children with low-grade SOI had a median length-of-stay of 2 days and a 23.9% intensive care unit admission rate. Only 1.7% (n = 17) of patients with low-grade SOI underwent an intervention, with the median time to intervention being the first hospital day. No child who underwent angiography was transfused or had an abnormal initial ED shock index.

CONCLUSION

Children with low-grade SOI are routinely admitted to the hospital and often to the intensive care unit but rarely undergo hospital-based intervention. The most common intervention was angiography, with questionable indications in this cohort. These data question the need for inpatient admission for low-grade SOI and suggest that discharge from the emergency room may be safe. Prospective investigation into granular risk factors to identify the rare patient needing hospital-based intervention is needed, as is validation of the safety of ambulatory management.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Prognostic and epidemiological, level III.

Routine Repeat Imaging of Pediatric Blunt Solid Organ Injuries Is Not Necessary

INTRODUCTION

Nonoperative management of hemodynamically stable patients with blunt splenic and/or hepatic injury has been widely accepted in the pediatric population. However, variability exists in the utilization and timing of repeat imaging to assess for delayed complications during index hospitalization. Recent level-IV evidence suggests that repeat imaging in children should be performed based on a patient's clinical status rather than on a routine basis. The aim of this study is to examine the rate of delayed complications and interventions in pediatric trauma patients with blunt splenic and/or hepatic injuries who undergo repeat imaging prompted either by a clinical change (CC) or non-clinical change (NCC).

METHODS

A 9-year (2011-2019), retrospective, dual-institution study was performed of children (0-17 years) with blunt splenic and/or hepatic injuries. Patients were grouped based on reason for repeat imaging: CC or NCC. The rate of organ-specific delayed complications and interventions was examined by reason for scan.

RESULTS

A total of 307 injuries were included in the study period (174 splenic, 113 hepatic, and 20 both). Of 194 splenic injuries, 30(15.5%) underwent repeat imaging (CC = 19; NCC = 11). Of 133 hepatic injuries, 27(20.3%) underwent repeat imaging (CC = 21; NCC = 6). There was no difference in the incidence of organ-specific delayed complications between the CC and NCC groups. Of the 4 patients with complications necessitating intervention, only one was identified based on NCC.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest routine repeat imaging is unnecessary in children with blunt splenic and/or hepatic injuries; therefore, practitioners may rely on a patient's clinical change.

Changes in Approach to Solid Organ Injury: What the Radiologist Needs to Know

This review aims to examine the challenges facing radiologists interpreting trauma computed tomography (CT) images in this era of a changing approach to management of solid organ trauma. After reviewing the pearls and pitfalls of CT imaging protocols for detection of traumatic solid organ injuries, we describe the key changes in the 2018 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Organ Injury Scales for liver, spleen, and kidney and their implications for management strategies. We then focus on the important imaging findings in observed in patients who undergo nonoperative management and patients who are imaged post damage control surgery.

"Occult" rib fractures diagnosed on computed tomography scan only are still a risk factor for solid organ injury

Introduction:

Prior to the widespread use of computed tomography (CT) scan imaging, lower rib fractures diagnosed on chest X-rays (CXRs) were considered a risk factor for abdominal solid organ injury (ASOI). However, CXRs miss about 50% of the rib fractures that are detected on CT scans. We hypothesized that these “occult” rib fractures would not be predictive for ASOI.

Materials and Methods:

Retrospective review of a level I trauma center's database identified all adult blunt trauma patients (n = 11,170) over a 5-year period. Data were abstracted for demographics, injury severity score, presence of ASOI, extremity, pelvic and spine fractures as well as presence and location of rib fractures.

Results:

Rib fractures correlated with the presence of ASOI, regardless of whether they were diagnosed by CXR or CT scan alone (P < 0.01). Middle (3-7) and lower (8-12) rib fractures, especially, correlated with the presence of ipsilateral ASOI (P < 0.0001).

Discussion:

Although CT scan detects more rib fractures than CXR, rib fractures remain a marker for increased likelihood of ASOI regardless of the modality by which they are diagnosed. Patients with rib fractures also have a greater incidence of spine and pelvic fractures. As the trauma community debates moving away from routine whole-body CT imaging towards a more selective approach, these results suggest that any clinical suspicion of rib fractures, despite a negative CXR, may warrant further investigation.

Critical care issues in solid organ injury: Review and experience in a tertiary trauma center

Background and Aim:

Solid organ (spleen and liver) injuries are dreaded by both surgeons and anesthesiologists because of associated high morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this review is to describe our experience of critical care concerns in solid organ injury, which otherwise has been poorly addressed in the literature.

Materials and Methods:

Retrospective cohort of solid organ injury (spleen and liver) patients was done from January 2010 to December 2011 in tertiary level trauma Center.

Results:

Out of 624 abdominal trauma patients, a total of 212 patients (70%) were admitted in intensive care unit (ICU). Their ages ranged from 6 to 74 years (median 24 years). Nearly 89% patients in liver trauma and 84% patients in splenic trauma were male. Mechanism of injury was blunt abdominal trauma in 96% patients and the most common associated injury was chest trauma. Average injury severity score, sequential organ failure assessment, lactate on admission was 16.84, 4.34 and 3.42 mmol/L and that of dying patient were 29.70, 7.73 and 5.09 mmol/L, respectively. Overall mortality of ICU admitted solid organ injury was 15.55%. Major issues of concern in splenic injury were hemorrhagic shock, overwhelming post-splenectomy infection and post-splenectomy vaccination. Issues raised in liver injury are damage control surgery, deadly triad, thromboelastography guided transfusion protocols and hemostatic agents. Conclusions: A protocol-based and multidisciplinary approach in high dependency unit can significantly reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with solid organ injury.

Abdominal injury patterns in patients with seatbelt signs requiring laparotomy

Aims:

We analyzed our series of patients with seatbelt signs (bruising) that underwent laparotomy in order to correlate injury pattern with clinical course and outcome.

Materials and Methods:

Retrospective analysis of patients with seatbelt signs presenting to the level 1 Trauma Unit between 2005 and 2010 was performed. We evaluated the nature of injuries during laparotomy associated with seatbelt signs and their treatment and complications.

Results:

There were 41 patients, 25 (61%) male, with a median age of 26 years. Median injury severity score (ISS) was 25 (range 6–66) and overall mortality was 10% (four patients). Patients were classified into three groups according to time from injury to surgery. Median time to surgery for the immediate group (n = 12) was 1.05 h, early group (n = 22) was 2.7 h, and delayed group (n = 7) was 19.5 h. Patients in the immediate group tended to have solid organ injuries; whereas, patients in the delayed group had bowel injury. Patients with solid organ injuries were found to be more seriously injured and had higher mortality (P < 0.01) and morbidity compared with patients with the “classic” bowel injury pattern associated with a typical seatbelt sign.

Conclusion:

Our data suggest that there is a cohort of patients with seatbelt injury who have solid organ injury requiring urgent intervention. Solid organ injuries associated with malpositioned seatbelts lying higher on the abdomen tend to result in hemodynamic instability necessitating immediate surgery. They have more postoperative complications and a greater mortality. Seatbelt signs should be accurately documented after any car crash.