Abstract
Prognostic determinants in thoracic trauma are of major public health interest. We intended to describe patterns of thoracic trauma, demographic factors, clinical course, and predictors of outcome in selected tertiary care hospitals in Sri Lanka. A multicentre prospective cohort study was conducted in five leading teaching hospitals from June to September 2017. Patients with thoracic trauma were followed up during the hospital stay. A logistic regression analysis was conducted using in-hospital morbidity as the dichotomous outcome variable. One hundred seventy-one patients were included in the study yielding 1450 (median = 8.5) person-days of observation. Of them, 71.9% (n = 123) were males. The mean age was 45.8 ± 17.9 years. Majority (39.2%, n = 67) were recruited from the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. Automobile accidents were the commonest (62.6%, n = 107), followed by falls (26.9%, n = 46), assaults (8.8%, n = 15), and animal attacks (1.8%, n = 3). The ratio of blunt to penetrating trauma was 5.6 : 1. Injury patterns were rib fractures (80.7%, n = 138), haemothorax (44.4%, n = 76), pneumothorax (44.4%, n = 76), lung contusion (22.8%, n = 39), flail segment (15.8%, n = 27), tracheobronchial trauma (7.0%, n = 12), diaphragmatic injury (2.3%, n = 4), vascular injury (2.3%, n = 4), cardiac contusions (1.1%, n = 2), and oesophageal injury (0.6%, n = 1). Ninety nine (57.9%) had extrathoracic injuries. Majority (63.2%, n = 108) underwent operative management including intercostal tube insertion (60.8%, n = 104), wound exploration (6.4%, n = 11), thoracotomy (4.1%, n = 7), rib reconstruction (4.1%, n = 7), and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (2.9%, n = 5). Pneumonia (10.5%, n = 8), bronchopleural fistulae (2.3%, n = 4), tracheaoesophageal fistulae (1.8%, n = 3), empyema (1.2%, n = 2), and myocardial infarction (1.2%, n = 2) were the commonest postoperative complications. The mean hospital stay was 15.6 ± 18.0 days. The in-hospital mortality was 11 (6.4%). The binary logistic regression analysis with five predictors (age, gender, mechanism of injury (automobile/fall/assault), type of trauma (blunt/penetrating), and the presence of extrathoracic injuries) was statistically significant to predict in-hospital morbidity (X2 (6, n = 168) = 13.1; p=0.041), explaining between 7.5% (Cox and Snell R2) and 14.5% (Nagelkerke R2) of variance. The automobile accidents (OR: 2.3, 95% CI = 0.2–26.2) and being males (OR: 2.3, 95% CI = 0.6–9.0) were the strongest predictors of morbidity.
Highlights
Accurate diagnosis of thoracic trauma depends on a high degree of suspicion and pattern recognition [11]. us, knowledge on unique demographic patterns of presentation of thoracic trauma is invaluable in making an accurate diagnosis
Ere are major differences of the reported demographic patterns, associated injuries, and complications of thoracic trauma in different regions of the world [14,15,16]. These data are sparse in the developing countries such as Sri Lanka, probably due to the unavailability of a national electronic trauma registry system. erefore, the objective of this study was to describe morbidity and mortality of thoracic trauma and the determinants of in-hospital morbidity following thoracic trauma in five selected tertiary care hospitals in Sri Lanka
Patients who were transferred between the selected hospitals were excluded to prevent duplication of the results. e patients who died in the resuscitation room before obtaining computed tomography (CT) or X-ray were excluded because of the inability to diagnose chest trauma accurately
Summary
50% of the cases of polytrauma are associated with major thoracic injuries [2, 3], contributing to a significant morbidity and mortality worldwide [4,5,6,7]. Ere are major differences of the reported demographic patterns, associated injuries, and complications of thoracic trauma in different regions of the world [14,15,16]. These data are sparse in the developing countries such as Sri Lanka, probably due to the unavailability of a national electronic trauma registry system.
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