The Effects of Chest Injury in the Early Deaths of Trauma Patients.
- Author:
Dong Hoon LEE
1
;
Dong Suep SOHN
;
Dai Yun CHO
;
Chan Woong KIM
Author Information
1. Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Trauma;
Mortality;
Thoracic injuries
- MeSH:
Abdomen;
Brain Injuries;
Cause of Death;
Early Diagnosis;
Head;
Hemorrhage;
Humans;
Mortality;
Multiple Trauma;
Retrospective Studies;
Risk Factors;
Tertiary Care Centers;
Thoracic Injuries*;
Thorax*;
Transportation
- From:The Korean Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
2006;39(2):127-133
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: In the studies of the distribution of time to death in trauma patients, the early deaths within several hours after injury were a large component of total trauma deaths. Due to the development of trauma system, overall mortality of trauma was decreased, but trauma is still the major cause of deaths. MATERIAL AND METHOD: From January 1994 to December 2003, trauma patients who had been admitted and had expired at tertiary hospital were enrolled. There was a total of 400 cases, a retrospective study was done to determine the distribution of trauma mortality according to the part of the body that were severely injured part and compared the difference between early deaths within 6 hours and late deaths after 6 hours. We also analysed the risk factors of early deaths due to trauma. RESULT: In severe injury to the head and abdomen, the distribution of mortality was bimodal. But, in severe chest injuries, the distribution was log-shape and most early deaths were almost of trauma related. The average of GCS were 5.86+/-4.15 for the early deaths and 8.24+/-5.02 for the late deaths (p <0.05). The AIS of thorax were 2.66+/-1.87 for the early deaths and 1.55+/-1.76 for late deaths. The risk factors for early mortality were non-EMS transportation (odds ratio 3.474), high AIS (odds ratio 1.491) and GCS (odds ratio 0.859). CONCLUSION: In trauma patients, the causes of early mortality were severe brain injury and massive hemorrhage. Also severe chest injuries were the major cause of the early deaths in truama. Early diagnosis of chest injury can frequently be missed in the acute trauma setting. Therefore, high index of suspicion, a careful examination, and aggressive surgical treatment are important in multiple trauma patients.
