Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery

INTRODUCTION: Smoking is a public health threat due to its well described link to increased oxidative stress-related diseases including peripheral vascular disease and coronary artery disease. Tobacco use has been linked to risk of inpatient trauma morbidity including acute respiratory distress syndrome, however its mechanistic effect on comprehensive metabolic heterogeneity has yet to be examined. METHODS: Plasma was obtained on arrival from injured patients at a Level 1 Trauma Center and analyzed with modern mass spectrometry-based metabolomics...

INTRODUCTION: There are no clear recommendations for the perioperative timing and initiation of venous thromboembolism pharmacologic prophylaxis (VTEp) among polytrauma patients undergoing high-risk bleeding orthopedic operative intervention, leading to variations in VTEp administration. Our study examined the association between the timing of VTEp and VTE complications in polytrauma patients undergoing high-risk operative orthopedic interventions nationwide. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of trauma patients ≥18 years who underwent high-risk bleeding operative orthopedic interventions for pelvic, hip, and femur fractures within 24 hours of admission at American College of Surgeons (ACS) verified trauma centers using the 2019-2020 ACS-TQIP databank...

INTRODUCTION: Whole blood resuscitation for hemorrhagic shock in trauma represents an opportunity to correct coagulopathy in trauma while also supplying red blood cells. The production of microvesicles in stored whole blood and their effect on its hemostatic parameters have not been described in previous literature. We hypothesized that microvesicles in aged stored whole blood are procoagulant and increase thrombin production via phosphatidylserine. METHODS: Whole blood was obtained from male C57BL/6 male mice and stored in anticoagulant solution for up to 10 days...

INTRODUCTION: Whole blood resuscitation has reemerged as a resuscitation strategy for injured patients. However, the effect of whole blood-based resuscitation on outcomes has not been established. The primary objective of this guideline was to develop evidence-based recommendations on whether whole blood should be considered in civilian trauma patients receiving blood transfusions. METHODS: An EAST working group performed a systematic review and meta-analysis utilizing the GRADE methodology...

BACKGROUND: Identification of abdominal injury (AI) in children with concern for physical abuse is important as it can provide important medical and forensic information. Current recommendations are to obtain screening liver function tests (LFTs) in all children with suspected physical abuse and an abdominal computed tomography (CT) when the aspartate aminotransferase (AST) or alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is >80 IU/L. This threshold to obtain an abdominal CT is lower than general trauma guidelines which use a cutoff of AST > 200 or ALT >125 IU/L...

INTRODUCTION: Trauma is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in older people and it is important to determine the predictors of outcomes after major trauma in older people. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and manual search of relevant papers since 1987 to February 2023 was searched. Random effects meta-analyses were performed. The primary outcome of interest was mortality and secondary outcomes were medical complications, length of stay, discharge destination, readmission, and intensive care requirement...

Trauma patients are at an elevated risk for developing venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. In the inpatient setting, prompt pharmacologic prophylaxis is utilized to prevent VTE. For patients with lower extremity fractures or limited mobility, VTE risk does not return to baseline levels post-discharge. Currently, there are limited data to guide post-discharge VTE prophylaxis in trauma patients. The goal of these post-discharge VTE prophylaxis guidelines are to identify patients at the highest risk of developing VTE after discharge and to offer pharmacologic prophylaxis strategies to limit this risk...

INTRODUCTION: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in trauma patients, despite chemoprophylaxis. Statins have been shown capable of acting upon the endothelium. We hypothesized that statin therapy in the pre- or in-hospital settings leads to a decreased incidence of VTE. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of injured patients who received statin therapy pre- or in-hospital. Adult, highest-level trauma activation patients admitted January 2018 - June 2022 were included...

INTRODUCTION: Retained hemothorax (HTX) is a common complication following thoracic trauma. Small studies demonstrate the benefit of thoracic cavity irrigation at the time of tube thoracostomy for the prevention of retained HTX. We sought to assess the effectiveness of chest irrigation in preventing retained HTX leading to a secondary surgical intervention. METHODS: We performed a single-center retrospective study from 2017-2021 at a Level I trauma center comparing bedside thoracic cavity irrigation via tube thoracostomy (TT) versus no irrigation...

BACKGROUND: To determine the clinical impact of wound management technique on surgical site infection (SSI), hospital length of stay (LOS) and mortality in emergent colorectal surgery. METHODS: A prospective observational study (2021-2023) of urgent or emergent colorectal surgery patients at 15 institutions was conducted. Pediatric patients and traumatic colorectal injuries were excluded. Patients were classified by wound closure technique: skin closed (SC), skin loosely closed (SLC), or skin open (SO)...

INTRODUCTION: Recent randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that prehospital tranexamic acid (TXA) administration following injury is safe and improves survival. However, the effect of prehospital TXA on adverse events, transfusion requirements and any dose response relationships require further elucidation. METHODS: A secondary analysis was performed using harmonized data from two large, double-blinded, randomized prehospital TXA trials. Outcomes, including 28-day mortality, pertinent adverse events and 24-hour red cell transfusion requirements were compared between TXA and placebo groups...

BACKGROUND: The modified Brain Injury Guidelines (mBIG) were developed to stratify traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and improve healthcare utilization by selectively requiring repeat imaging, ICU admission, and neurosurgical (NSG) consultation. The goal of this study is to assess safety and potential resource savings associated with the application of mBIG on interhospital patient transfers for TBI. METHODS: Adult patients with TBI transferred to our Level I trauma center from 01/2017 to 12/2022 meeting mBIG inclusion criteria were retrospectively stratified into mBIG1, mBIG2, and mBIG3 based on initial clinicoradiological factors...

INTRODUCTION: Clinical clearance of a child's cervical spine after trauma is often challenging due to impaired mental status or an unreliable neurologic examination. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the gold standard for excluding ligamentous injury in children but is constrained by long image acquisition times and frequent need for anesthesia. Limited-sequence MRI (LSMRI) is used in evaluating the evolution of traumatic brain injury and may also be useful for cervical spine clearance while potentially avoiding the need for anesthesia...

BACKGROUND: In a large multicenter trial, The Parkland Grading Scale(PGS) for acute cholecystitis outperformed other grading scales and has a positive correlation with complications but is limited in its inability to preoperatively predict high-grade cholecystitis. We sought to identify preoperative variables predictive of high-grade cholecystitis(PGS 4 or 5). METHODS: In a six-month period, patients undergoing cholecystectomy at a single institution with prospectively graded PGS were analyzed...

The National Trauma Research Action Plan (NTRAP) project successfully engaged multidisciplinary experts to define opportunities to advance trauma research and has fulfilled the recommendations related to trauma research from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report. These panels identified more than 4,800 gaps in our knowledge regarding injury prevention and the optimal care of injured patients and laid out a priority framework and tools to support researchers to advance this field...

Diagnostic evaluation of penetrating neck trauma has evolved considerably over the last several decades. The contemporary approach to these injuries is based primarily on clinical signs of injury and multidetector computed tomographic angiography (MDCTA). The neck is evaluated as a unit, rather than relying on the surface anatomy zones in which external injuries are seen to guide the workup of internal injuries. This "no-zone" approach safely spares many patients from negative explorations and unnecessary invasive tests...

Acute colonic diverticulitis is a common disease treated by acute care surgeons. Acute uncomplicated colonic diverticulitis involves thickening of the colon wall and inflammatory changes and less commonly requires the expertise of a surgeon; many cases may be treated as an outpatient with or without antibiotics. Complicated diverticulitis involves phlegmon, abscess, peritonitis, obstruction, stricture, and/or fistula and usually requires inpatient hospital admission, treatment with antibiotics, and consideration for intervention including operative management...

BACKGROUND: Serial neurologic examinations (NE) are routinely recommended in the ICU within the first 24 hours following a TBI. There are currently no widely accepted guidelines for the frequency of NE. Disruptions to the sleep-wake cycles increase the delirium rate. We aimed to evaluate whether there is a correlation between prolonged Q1-NE and development of delirium and to determine if this practice reduces the likelihood of missing the detection of a process requiring emergent intervention...

BACKGROUND: Community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs are considered important strategies for preventing community violence and promoting health and safety. Mixed and inconclusive results from some prior CVI evaluations-and our general lack of understanding about the reasons for such varied findings-may be explained in part by misalignment of program theories of change and evaluation measures. Further, most prior evaluations have focused solely on deficit-based outcomes; this narrow focus is inconsistent with the premise of CVI and may fail to capture improvements in health and wellbeing that are on the hypothesized pathway from intervention to violence reduction...

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