Trauma & critical care

PURPOSE: Whole-body computer tomographic examinations (WBCT) are essential in diagnosing the severely injured. The structured clinical evaluation in the emergency trauma room, according to ATLS® and guidelines, helps to indicate the correct radiological imaging to avoid overtriage and undertriage. This retrospective, single-center study aimed to evaluate the value of WBCT in patients with an inconspicuous primary survey and whether there is any evidence for this investigation in this group of patients...

BACKGROUND: Emergency colorectal resections hold a significant position in general surgical practice, and pathologies of the left colon are relatively common. This study was conducted to assess the outcomes of isolated left colon surgeries with benign etiologies, drawing on clinicopathological and biochemical data. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective review and statistical analysis of demographic, clinical, and laboratory data of patients who underwent left colon surgery at the general surgery clinic of a tertiary care hospital, excluding those with malignancy-related emergencies, from January 2017 to January 2022...

BACKGROUND: This descriptive analysis examines the victims of the February 6, 2023, earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş and Elbistan, Türkiye. It aims to detail the injury profiles related to neuro-musculoskeletal trauma, assess the rehabilitation needs of patients, and propose a comprehensive rehabilitation approach. METHODS: The study included patients injured in the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquake on February 6, 2023, who were transported to our hospital based on their rehabilitation needs...

Issue:  A significant component of health professions education is focussed on students' exposure to the social determinants of health and the challenges that patients within the health care system face. An appropriate way to provide such exposure is through distributed clinical training. This usually entails students training in smaller groups along the continuum of care, away from tertiary academic hospitals. This also means students are away from their existing academic and social support systems. It is evident that knowledge and clinical skills alone are not sufficient to prepare students, they also need to be taught to critically reflect on how their own values and attitudes traverse their knowledge and skills to influence their practice as healthcare professionals...

BACKGROUND: Although hands-on simulation plays a valuable role in procedural training, there are limited tools available to teach pediatric flexible bronchoscopy (PFB). Fellowship programs rely on patient encounters, with inherent risk, or high-cost virtual reality simulators that may not be widely available and create education inequalities. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to study the educational value and transferability of a novel, low-cost, three-dimensional-printed pediatric airway model (3D-AM) for PFB training...

BACKGROUND: The increase in severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) incidence is a worldwide phenomenon, resulting in a heavy disease burden in the public health systems, specifically in emerging countries. The shock index (SI) is a physiological parameter that indicates cardiovascular status and has been used as a tool to assess the presence and severity of shock, which is increased in sTBI. Considering the high mortality of sTBI, scrutinizing the predictive potential of SI and its variants is vital...

STUDY DESIGN: Protocol for the development of clinical practice guidelines following the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) standards. OBJECTIVES: Acute SCI or intraoperative SCI (ISCI) can have devastating physical and psychological consequences for patients and their families. The treatment of SCI has dramatically evolved over the last century as a result of preclinical and clinical research that has addressed important knowledge gaps, including injury mechanisms, disease pathophysiology, medical management, and the role of surgery...

PURPOSE: Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is a serious complication after orthopedic trauma. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for FES in isolated lower extremity long bone fractures. METHODS: The National Trauma Data Bank "NTDB" study included patients with isolated femoral and tibial fractures. A total of 344 patients with FES were propensity score matched with 981 patients without FES. Multivariate logistical regression was used to identify independent risk factors for FES...

PURPOSE: Pathogenesis of sacral fragility fractures is not fully understood. This study investigates zonal distribution of calcium salt and fat marrow in intact bone-healthy and osteoporotic pelvis. In addition, in unilateral sacral fractures, the fracture side was compared with the intact side. METHODS: CT and MRI images of 37 pelves were analyzed. Zonal calcium salt distribution by Hounsfield units (HU) was recorded for each CT dataset. Fat marrow content was measured in MRI mDixon-Quant sequence...

OBJECTIVES: To develop an equation for defining a low skeletal muscle mass (SMM) in children and to investigate risk factors and outcomes associated with low SMM in critically ill pediatric patients. DESIGN: Single-center retrospective pediatric cohorts, 2011-2018. SETTING: Tertiary Emergency and Critical Care Center of Kyushu University Hospital in Japan. PATIENTS: We studied two cohorts of pediatric patients 1-15 years old who underwent abdominal CT at the level of the third lumbar vertebra (L3)...

Background: Sudden gains, defined as large and stable improvements of psychopathological symptoms, are a ubiquitous phenomenon in psychotherapy. They have been shown to occur across several clinical contexts and to be associated with better short-term and long-term treatment outcome. However, the approach of sudden gains has been criticized for its tautological character: sudden gains are included in the computation of treatment outcomes, ultimately resulting in a circular conclusion. Furthermore, some authors criticize sudden gains as merely being random fluctuations...

BACKGROUND: Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) provide rapid and specialized care to critically ill or injured patients. Norwegian HEMS in Central Norway serves an important role in pre-hospital emergency medical care. To grade the severity of patients, HEMS uses the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' (NACA) severity score. The objective of this study was to describe the short- and long term mortality overall and in each NACA-group for patients transported by HEMS Trondheim using linkage of HEMS and hospital data...

INTRODUCTION: Methemoglobinemia, characterized by the conversion of functional hemoglobin to methemoglobin, can significantly impede tissue oxygenation. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of methemoglobinemia are critical to optimizing clinical outcomes. Although the underlying etiology of methemoglobinemia is often attributed to a medication reaction or chemical exposure, its association with battlefield trauma remains underexplored. This case series explores the presence of methemoglobinemia in nine soldiers evacuated from tanks targeted by explosives, shedding new light on screening needs and treatment strategies...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

PURPOSE: It was aimed to compare the results of long segment posterior instrumentation with intermediate pedicular screw + fusion at the level of the fractured segment including one vertebra above and one below the fractured vertebra (LSPI) and short segment posterior instrumentation with intermediate pedicular screw + fusion at the level of the fractured segment including one vertebra above and one below the fractured vertebra (SSPI) in the surgical treatment of thoracolumbar vertebral fractures...

OBJECTIVES: Despite the large burden of critically ill patients in developing countries, mechanical ventilation (MV) is scarce in these low-resource settings. In the absence of data, issues like costs and lack of training are often felt to outweigh the benefits of potential MV implementation in such places. We aimed to investigate the impact and feasibility of MV in a surgical ICU in West Africa. DESIGN: This is a 7-month retrospective observational study (from October 25, 2022, to May 25, 2023), covering all patients consecutively admitted to ICU...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the accuracy of abbreviated urine collection (≤12 hours) compared with 24-hour urine collection for measuring creatinine clearance (CrCl) in critically ill adult patients. DATA SOURCES: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis Global; screened reference lists of included studies; and contacted the authors when needed. English studies only were considered with no restriction on dates...

SIGNIFICANCE: The Wound Healing Foundation recognized the need for consensus-based unbiased recommendations for the treatment of wounds. As a first step, a consensus on the treatment of chronic wounds was developed and published in 2022.(1) The current publication on acute wounds represents the second step in this process. Acute wounds may result from any number of conditions, including burns, military and combat operations, and trauma to specific areas of the body. The management of acute wounds requires timely and evidence-driven intervention to achieve optimal clinical outcomes...

People on the move are increasingly immobilised between and within state borders, having left 'there' but not allowed to be fully 'here'. This paper presents a nuanced examination of this state of enforced in--betweenness, exploring how refugees and other migrants negotiate collective existence through, despite, and alongside liminality. Drawing on ethnographic data collected at a Swiss Red Cross psychotraumatology centre, the study identifies factors that impede and facilitate the formation of collective identities, with temporal and spatial liminality emerging as the most central collective experience for refugees and other migrants...