Hemorrhage is the leading cause of death in trauma patients and trauma induced coagulopathy (TIC) is a major contributor to bleeding mortality. TIC has a diverse pathophysiology triggered by injury and hypoperfusion, including platelet dysfunction, endotheliopathy, fibrinogen or thrombin abnormalities, and dysregulated fibrinolysis. Early fluid resuscitation, appropriate blood transfusion, and definitive control of bleeding are essential components of initial management for TIC. Additionally, tranexamic acid (TXA), an antifibrinolytic agent, has emerged as a potential adjunctive therapy following the 2010 landmark trial that demonstrated the benefit of early administration of TXA in reducing trauma patient mortality (CRASH-2). This review provides an analysis of the current literature on the use of TXA in trauma patients. It critically evaluates the evidence on the effect of TXA on TIC and other clinical outcomes, emphasizing the time-sensitive nature of TXA administration and the variation of its effect depending on the severity and location of injury. It also discusses the optimal dosage, timing, and safety of TXA, as well as the challenges and limitations of existing studies. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of individualized treatment approaches based on the fibrinolysis status of TIC and the value of goal-directed therapy guided by viscoelastic hemostatic assays for the appropriate use of TXA.

In a narrow sense, the trauma team is intra-hospital organization that perform the initial assessment and resuscitation for the victims. Cooperation with the administrative and governance body of the hospital is essential for the function as a trauma center. The hospital could be as a core of the trauma care system with this support. Essential to this core position is a hospital trauma program that regulates and supports the trauma team activities. This trauma program consists of the hospital governance, administration, the trauma team and leader, trauma program manager, the registrar and the multidisciplinary committee of the performance improvement program. The essential elements of the trauma team include a trauma surgeon, an emergency physician, emergency department nurses, a laboratory and radiology technician, an anesthesiologist and a scribe. The team leader should be a trauma surgeon and coordinate the multidisciplinary professions in the team during the entire trauma care process. Clear criteria for the trauma team activation should be defined in advance. The composition of the team and the activation criteria may vary with the hospital capacity, the severity of injury, and the level of activation. The tiered criteria are based on clinical information from the field: physiologic and anatomic conditions and mechanism of injury and are recommended. The multidisciplinary committee for the performance improvement should monitor and assess trauma program outcomes. These activities will lead to trauma care improvements.
Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Resuscitation ; Trauma Centers ; Triage

Purpose: Echocardiography is useful in the management of critically ill patients, but there are few studies on the usefulness of an echocardiography for critical general surgery patients. This study aimed to address this by analyzing the indications and findings for and clinical outcomes between (1) chest trauma; (2) cardiac specific pathology; and (3) hemodynamic instability groups of critical general surgery patients
Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on the medical records data from the last 5 years of general surgery patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and had an echocardiography at least once during their ICU stay. The patient data were divided into 3 groups according to the indication for an echocardiography and based on the clinical situation. Demographics, the ratio of positive echocardiography findings, and clinical outcomes including the length of hospital stay, length of ICU stay, and in-hospital mortality were analyzed among these groups.
Results: There were statistical differences in the rate of positive echocardiography findings (p = 0.018) and in-hospital mortality (p = 0.001) amongst the groups with different echocardiography indications; there was no difference in the length of stay. Patients who had an echocardiography due to hemodynamic instability or cardiologic pathology presented with a higher ratio of positive echocardiography findings and mortality, compared with the chest trauma patient group. The chest trauma group showed the lowest rate of positive echocardiography findings (7%).
Conclusion Echocardiographies are useful for general surgery patients in ICUs when there are indications such as previous cardiac pathology history or hemodynamic instability.

Purpose: Echocardiography is useful in the management of critically ill patients, but there are few studies on the usefulness of an echocardiography for critical general surgery patients. This study aimed to address this by analyzing the indications and findings for and clinical outcomes between (1) chest trauma; (2) cardiac specific pathology; and (3) hemodynamic instability groups of critical general surgery patients
Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on the medical records data from the last 5 years of general surgery patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and had an echocardiography at least once during their ICU stay. The patient data were divided into 3 groups according to the indication for an echocardiography and based on the clinical situation. Demographics, the ratio of positive echocardiography findings, and clinical outcomes including the length of hospital stay, length of ICU stay, and in-hospital mortality were analyzed among these groups.
Results: There were statistical differences in the rate of positive echocardiography findings (p = 0.018) and in-hospital mortality (p = 0.001) amongst the groups with different echocardiography indications; there was no difference in the length of stay. Patients who had an echocardiography due to hemodynamic instability or cardiologic pathology presented with a higher ratio of positive echocardiography findings and mortality, compared with the chest trauma patient group. The chest trauma group showed the lowest rate of positive echocardiography findings (7%).
Conclusion Echocardiographies are useful for general surgery patients in ICUs when there are indications such as previous cardiac pathology history or hemodynamic instability.

PURPOSE: It is very important to detect hematogenous spread of cancer cells early in breast cancer patients in order to properly determine the prognosis and adjuvant therapy. In this study, we attempted to detect Cytokeratin-20 (CK-20) as a mRNA marker of cancer cells in peripheral blood and bone marrow using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). METHODS: We obtained peripheral blood and bone marrow from 41 breast cancer patients who had been treated by Korea University Hospital. Using the RT-PCR method, we detected the CK-20 and compared the positive detection rate and concordance rate between two sources. Furthermore, we analysed the correlation with other known prognostic and predictive factors. RESULTS: The CK-20 detection rate was 36.5% in peripheral blood and in bone marrow. The concordance rate between both sources was 56%. In CK-20 detection, there was no significant correlation seen between peripheral blood and bone marrow (p>0.05). Additionally, there were no statistically significant correlations found between the other predictive factors (ER, PR, p53 protein expression, nm23 protein expression). Six cases who were CK-20 positive and were detected in both (peripheral blood, bone marrow) source showed advanced stage and axillary lymph node metastasis (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The detection of CK-20 in peripheral blood and bone marrow correlated with stage and axillary nodal status. Therefore, this may suggest poor clinical prognosis if CK-20is detected in both sources in a breast cancer patient. The RT-PCR assay for detection of CK-20 is a very sensitive method, however the standardization and quality control of the RT-PCR method are important and multi-center trials are required.
Bone Marrow* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Humans ; Keratin-20* ; Korea ; Lymph Nodes ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis ; Prognosis ; Quality Control ; RNA, Messenger

Purpose: Proper use of antibiotics during emergency abdominal surgery is essential in reducing the incidence of surgical site infection. However, no studies have investigated the type of antibiotics and duration of therapy in individuals with abdominal trauma in Korea. We aimed to investigate the status of initial antibiotic therapy in patients with solitary abdominal trauma. Methods: From January 2015 to December 2015, we retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients with solitary abdominal trauma from 17 institutions including regional trauma centers in South Korea. Both blunt and penetrating abdominal injuries were included. Time from arrival to initial antibiotic therapy, rate of antibiotic use upon injury mechanism, injured organ, type, and duration of antibiotic use, and postoperative infection were investigated. Results: Data of the 311 patients were collected. The use of antibiotic was initiated in 96.4% of patients with penetrating injury and 79.7% with blunt injury. Initial antibiotics therapy was provided to 78.2% of patients with solid organ injury and 97.5% with hollow viscus injury. The mean day of using antibiotics was 6 days in solid organ injuries, 6.2 days in hollow viscus. Infection within 2 weeks of admission occurred in 36 cases. Infection was related to injury severity (Abbreviated Injury Scale of >3), hollow viscus injury, operation, open abdomen, colon perforation, and RBC transfusion. There was no infection in cases with laparoscopic operation. Duration of antibiotics did not affect the infection rate. Conclusion Antibiotics are used extensively (84.2%) and for long duration (6.2 days) in patients with abdominal injury in Korea.