OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of race and insurance status on trauma mortality. METHODS Review of patients (aged 18-64 years; Injury Severity Score > or = 9) included in the National Trauma Data Bank (2001-2005). African American and Hispanic patients were each compared with white patients and insured patients were compared with uninsured patients. Multiple logistic regression analyses de...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the long-term consequences of severe injuries in terms of return to productivity and quality of life. METHODS In this study we focused on the return to work status and quality of life in 53 severely injured patients (AIS/ISS > or = 16, mean ISS 24, range 16 - 54), mean age 37 years, one to two years after the injury. Questions were asked concerning employment ...

When comparing two populations of multiply injured patients differences in patient characteristics must be controlled for. To measure the overall severity of injury, scaling systems are used. If after adjustment for injury severity, the proportion of deaths in the two data sets are still different, the difference is to be considered as due to the quality of care. However, this conclusion is onl...

BACKGROUND The BIG score (Admission base deficit (B), International normalized ratio (I), and Glasgow Coma Scale (G)) has been shown to predict mortality on admission in pediatric trauma patients. The objective of this study was to assess its performance in predicting mortality in an adult trauma population, and to compare it with the existing Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) and probab...

BACKGROUND Systemic immune response to injury plays a key role in the pathophysiological mechanism of blunt trauma. We tested the hypothesis that increased blood interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels of blunt trauma patients on emergency department (ED) arrival are associated with poor clinical outcomes, and investigated the utility of rapid measurement of the blood IL-6 level. METHODS We enrolled 208 ...

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and pneumonia have a great impact on the treatment regimen of polytraumatized patients with severe chest trauma. The objective of our study was to determine whether biomarker levels assessed shortly after multiple trauma may predict the occurrence of these conditions. METHODS AND FINDINGS Our patient population included 71 men and 30 women...

BACKGROUND Immediate recognition of life-threatening conditions and injuries is the key to trauma management. To date, the impact of focused assessment with computed tomography in trauma (FACTT) has not been formally assessed. We aimed to find out whether the concept of using FACTT during primary trauma survey has a negative or positive effect on survival. METHODS In a retrospective, multicen...

 Objective: To evaluate the association of base deficit (BD) with mortality in traumatized children, and to assess this association in a subgroup of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).   Methods: In this cross-sectional study performed prospectively on a convenience sample of patients under 16 years of age with trauma presenting to an academic lev...

Background: Data on the long-term outcome of major trauma survivors in the United Kingdom (UK) is lacking. This pilot study aimed to investigate the health status of survivors of major trauma without significant head injury in the West of Scotland, and to compare the Short-Form 12 (SF12) questionnaire administered by telephone (TSF12) to the longer Short-Form 36 (SF36) questionnaire. Methods: T...

BACKGROUND Besides care for injured US military personnel, doctrine also requires life-, limb-, and eyesight-saving care to all injured casualties, including children. This study's objective was to evaluate the burden and epidemiology of pediatric medical care during the past decade of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. METHODS Retrospective review of two military registries of all ...