Enhanced Trauma Video Review With Computer Vision: Trauma Resuscitation Phase Segmentation and Procedure Detection

Pain relief can often be overlooked during a busy trauma resuscitation, especially in patients who are intubated. We sought to investigate qualitative and quantitative aspects of analgesic use in intubated patients during the acute phase of resuscitation. We evaluated a retrospective cohort of consecutive adult patients who were intubated during the acute trauma resuscitation (first 6 hours) from January 2001 to May 2002 at a Level I trauma center in the United States. Patient demographics, injuries, vital signs, medications, trauma bay procedures, and disposition status were analyzed. Analgesia was recorded as the type of analgesic, route of administration, elapsed time to receive the first analgesic, total dosage, and time intervals between two successive doses. Fisher's exact test, chi test, and ANOVA were used to analyze data. A total of 120 patients were included. Sixty-one (51%) patients received analgesia during their stay in the emergency department. Using logistic regression analysis, patients who more likely to receive analgesia were those who did not require immediate surgical operation and were transferred to the intensive care unit (odds ratio [OR]=3.91; 95% CI=1.75-8.76) and those who were admitted during the hours of 8 am to 6 pm (OR=3.17; CI=1.40-7.16). Among those patients receiving analgesia, 30 (25%) patients received analgesia within 30 minutes upon arrival. The mean time of receiving the first analgesia dose was 57 minutes. The average morphine equivalent dose given to the patients was 15.7 mg. The most frequently given single dose was 100 mug of intravenous fentanyl. Most of the analgesics (37%) were given between 30 to 60 minutes apart. Our findings suggest that patients who are intubated during the acute resuscitation probably receive inadequate analgesia. The inadequacy appears to be in the timing and repetition of administration, rather than the dose. Patients who were transferred early to the intensive care unit were more likely to receive analgesics.

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) has been shown to improve outcomes related to trauma resuscitation; however, omissions from this protocol persist. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a trauma resuscitation checklist on performance of ATLS tasks. Video recordings of resuscitations of children sustaining blunt or penetrating injuries at a Level I pediatric trauma center were reviewed for completion and timeliness of ATLS primary and secondary survey tasks, with and without checklist use. Patient and resuscitation characteristics were obtained from the trauma registry. Data were collected during two 4-month periods before (n = 222) and after (n = 213) checklist implementation. The checklist contained 50 items and included four sections: prearrival, primary survey, secondary survey, and departure plan. Five primary survey ATLS tasks (cervical spine immobilization, oxygen administration, palpating pulses, assessing neurologic status, and exposing the patient) and nine secondary survey ATLS tasks were performed more frequently (p ≤ 0.01 for all) and vital sign measurements were obtained faster (p ≤ 0.01 for all) after the checklist was implemented. When controlling for patient and event-specific characteristics, primary and secondary survey tasks overall were more likely to be completed (odds ratio [OR] = 2.66, primary survey; OR = 2.47, secondary survey; p < 0.001 for both) and primary survey tasks were performed faster (p < 0.001) after the checklist was implemented. Implementation of a trauma checklist was associated with greater ATLS task performance and with increased frequency and speed of primary and secondary survey task completion.

696 Outcomes of Traumatic Aortic Injury Patients According to CT Grade of Injury

Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) is one of the ultimately invasive procedures for managing a noncompressive torso injury. Since it is less invasive than resuscitative open aortic cross-clamping, its clinical application is expected. We retrospectively evaluated the safety and clinical feasibility of REBOA (intra-aortic occlusion balloon, MERA, Tokyo, Japan) using the Seldinger technique to control severe hemorrhage. Of 5,230 patients admitted to our trauma center in Japan from 2007 to 2013, we included 24 who underwent REBOA primarily. The indications for REBOA were a pelvic ring fracture or hemoperitoneum with hemodynamically instability and impending cardiac arrest. Emergency hemostasis was performed during REBOA in all patients. All 24 patients had a blunt injury, the median age was 59 (interquartile range, 41-71 years), the median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 47 (interquartile range, 37-52), the 30-day survival rate was 29.2% (n = 7), and the median probability survival rate was 12.5%. Indications for REBOA were hemoperitoneum and pelvic ring fracture in 15 cases and overlap in 8 cases. In 10 cases of death, the balloon could not be deflated in 5 cases. In 19 cases in which the balloon was deflated, the median duration of aortic occlusion was shorter in survivors than in deaths (21 minutes vs. 35 minutes, p = 0.05). The mean systolic blood pressure was significantly increased by REBOA (from 53.1 [21] mm Hg to 98.0 [26.6] mm Hg, p < 0.01). There were three cases with complications (12.5%), one external iliac artery injury and two lower limb ischemias in which lower limb amputation was necessary in all cases. Acute kidney injury developed in all three cases, but failure was not persistent. REBOA seems to be feasible for trauma resuscitation and may improve survivorship. However, the serious complication of lower limb ischemia warrants more research on its safety. Therapeutic/care management, level V.

A Fine Excision: ATLS Manual No Longer Defines Trauma as a Surgical Disease

Rapid effective trauma resuscitations (TRs) decrease patient morbidity and mortality. Few studies have evaluated TR care times. Effective time goals and superior human patient simulator (HPS) training can improve patient survivability. The purpose of this study was to compare live TR to HPS resuscitation times to determine mean incremental resuscitation times and ascertain if simulation was educationally equivalent. The study was conducted at San Antonio Military Medical Center, Department of Defense Level I trauma center. This was a prospective observational study measuring incremental step times by trauma teams during trauma and simulation patient resuscitations. Trauma and simulation patient arms had 60 patients for statistical significance. Participants included Emergency Medicine residents and Physician Assistant residents as the trauma team leader. The trauma patient arm revealed a mean evaluation time of 10:33 and simulation arm 10:23. Comparable time characteristics in the airway, intravenous access, blood sample collection, and blood pressure data subsets were seen. TR mean times were similar to the HPS arm subsets demonstrating simulation as an effective educational tool. Effective stepwise approaches, incremental time goals, and superior HPS training can improve patient survivability and improved departmental productivity using TR teams.

Acute Trauma and Resuscitation Preceptorship

In reply:

The optimal time to initiate venous thromboembolism (VTE) chemoprophylaxis (VTEp) after blunt solid organ injury remains controversial, as VTE mitigation must be balanced against bleeding promulgation. Evidence from primarily small, retrospective, single-center work suggests that VTEp ≤48 hours is safe and effective. This study was undertaken to validate this clinical practice. Blunt trauma patients presenting to 19 participating trauma centers in North America were screened over a 1-year study period beginning between August 1 and October 1, 2021. Inclusions were age older than 15 years; ≥1 liver, spleen, or kidney injury; and initial nonoperative management. Exclusions were transfers, emergency department death, pregnancy, and concomitant bleeding disorder/anticoagulation/antiplatelet medication. A priori power calculation stipulated the need for 1,158 patients. Time of VTEp initiation defined study groups: Early (≤48 hours of admission) versus Late (>48 hours). Bivariate and multivariable analyses compared outcomes. In total, 1,173 patients satisfied the study criteria with 571 liver (49%), 557 spleen (47%), and 277 kidney injuries (24%). The median patient age was 34 years (interquartile range, 25-49 years), and 67% (n = 780) were male. The median Injury Severity Score was 22 (interquartile range, 14-29) with Abbreviated Injury Scale Abdomen score of 3 (interquartile range, 2-3), and the median American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grade of solid organ injury was 2 (interquartile range, 2-3). Early VTEp patients (n = 838 [74%]) had significantly lower rates of VTE (n = 28 [3%] vs. n = 21 [7%], p = 0.008), comparable rates of nonoperative management failure (n = 21 [3%] vs. n = 12 [4%], p = 0.228), and lower rates of post-VTEp blood transfusion (n = 145 [17%] vs. n = 71 [23%], p = 0.024) when compared with Late VTEp patients (n = 301 [26%]). Late VTEp was independently associated with VTE (odd ratio, 2.251; p = 0.046). Early initiation of VTEp was associated with significantly reduced rates of VTE with no increase in bleeding complications. Venous thromboembolism chemoprophylaxis initiation ≤48 hours is therefore safe and effective and should be the standard of care for patients with blunt solid organ injury. Therapeutic and Care Management; Level III.

BackgroundThe application of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) in trauma resuscitation, including for profound shock and cardiac arrest, has gained prominence. This study aimed to determine the...

Census data published by professional organizations indicate an upward trend in the number of physician assistants (PAs) working in many specialty fields, including the subspecialty of trauma surgery. As the role of hospital-based PAs and nurse practitioners (NPs) continues to evolve, greater understanding of these roles will help identify future employment trends for these professions. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of PAs and NPs in US trauma centers, to document their roles, and to identify their potential future utilization by trauma centers. A survey was mailed to 464 directors of major trauma centers in the United States. The survey was designed to evaluate trauma centers' utilization of PAs/NPs. Respondents were asked to identify specific daily tasks of PAs/NPs and to indicate potential for their future utilization. Two hundred forty-six (246) of 464 surveys were returned, for a response rate of 53%. Approximately one-third of reporting major trauma centers reported utilizing PAs/NPs. More American College of Surgeons (ACS)-verified trauma facilities utilized PAs/NPs than did nonverified facilities; and Level I trauma centers used significantly more PAs/NPs than did Level II trauma centers. Nineteen percent (19%) of respondents who did not currently utilize PAs/NPs indicated that they intended to do so in the future. The majority of facilities utilized PAs/NPs to assist with trauma resuscitation and in performing traditional tasks, including obtaining and dictating histories and physical findings, participating in rounds on the general medical floor, and dictating discharge summaries. Fewer than half of reporting facilities indicated that PAs/NPs performed more invasive procedures, such as inserting arterial lines, central lines, chest tubes, and intracranial pressure monitors. PAs and NPs are increasingly utilized as clinicians in the surgical subspecialty of trauma. In most trauma centers, PAs/NPs are utilized to complete the traditional duties of a surgical PA/NP, with fewer performing invasive procedures. Finally, 19% of responding trauma centers who do not currently utilize PAs/NPs state that they intend to in the future, indicating the potential for continued job growth for PAs/NPs in trauma care. This evaluation of the utilization of PAs/NPs in direct care to trauma patients indicates acceptance of PAs/NPs in trauma staffing models.

The optimal management of pediatric patients with high-grade blunt pancreatic injury (BPI) involving the main pancreatic duct remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the nationwide trends in the management of pediatric high-grade BPI at pediatric (PTC), mixed (MTC), and adult trauma centers (ATC). This is a retrospective observational study of the National Trauma Data Bank. We included pediatric patients (age 16 years or less) sustaining high-grade BPI (Abbreviated Injury Scale 3 or more) from 2011 to 2021. Patients who did not undergo pancreatic operation were categorized into the nonoperative management (NOM) group. Trauma centers were defined as PTC (level I/II pediatric only), MTC (level I/II adult and pediatric), and ATC (level I/II adult only). Primary outcome was the proportion of patients undergoing NOM, and secondary outcomes included the use of ERCP and in-hospital mortality. A Cochran-Armitage test was used to analyze the trend. A total of 811 patients were analyzed. The median age was 9 years (interquartile range 6 to 13), 64% were male patients, and the median injury severity score was 17 (interquartile range 10 to 25). During the study period, there was a significant upward linear trend in the use of NOM and ERCP among the overall cohort (range 48% to 66%; p trend = 0.033, range 6.1% to 19%; p trend = 0.030, respectively). The significant upward trend for NOM was maintained in the subgroup of patients at PTC and MTC (p trend = 0.037), whereas no significant trend was observed at ATC (p trend = 0.61). There was no significant trend in in-hospital mortality (p trend = 0.38). For the management of pediatric patients with high-grade BPI, this study found a significant trend toward increasing use of NOM and ERCP without mortality deterioration, especially at PTC and MTC.

Translational research in medical education requires the ability to rigorously measure learner performance in actual clinical settings; however, current measurement systems cannot accommodate the variability inherent in many patient care environments. This is especially problematic in emergency medicine, where patients represent a wide spectrum of severity for a single clinical presentation. Our objective is to describe and implement EBAM, an event-based approach to measurement that can be applied to actual emergency medicine clinical events. We used a four-step event-based approach to create an emergency department trauma resuscitation patient care measure. We applied the measure to a database of 360 actual trauma resuscitations recorded in a Level I trauma center using trained raters. A subset (n=50) of videos was independently rated in duplicate to determine inter-rater reliability. Descriptive analyses were performed to describe characteristics of resuscitation events and Cohen's kappa was used to calculate reliability. The methodology created a metric containing both universal items that are applied to all trauma resuscitation events and conditional items that only apply in certain situations. For clinical trauma events, injury severity scores ranged from 1 to 75 with a mean (±SD) of 21 (±15) and included both blunt (254/360; 74%) and penetrating (86/360; 25%) traumatic injuries, demonstrating the diverse nature of the clinical encounters. The mean (±SD) Cohen's kappa for patient care items was 0.7 (±0.3). We present an event-based approach to performance assessment that may address a major gap in translational education research. Our work centered on assessment of patient care behaviors during trauma resuscitation. More work is needed to evaluate this approach across a diverse array of clinical events.

Motor vehicle collisions account for the majority of blunt vascular trauma. Much of the literature describes the management of these injuries in isolation, and there is little information concerning the incidence and outcome in patients suffering multiple trauma. This study was undertaken to describe the spectrum of blunt vascular injuries in polytrauma patients. All patients who had sustained blunt vascular trauma over a 6-year period (April 2007-March 2013) were identified from a prospectively gathered database at the Level I Trauma Unit, Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, Durban, South Africa. The retrieved data consisted of age, sex, mechanism of injury, referral source, Injury Severity Score (ISS), New Injury Severity Score (NISS), time from injury to admission, surgical intervention and outcome. The initial investigation of choice for patients sustaining multiple injuries was computed tomography (CT) angiography if they were physiologically stable, followed by directed angiography if there was doubt concerning any vascular lesion. If technically feasible, endovascular stenting was the preferred option for both aortic and peripheral vascular injuries. Of 1,033 patients who suffered blunt polytrauma, 61 (5.9%) sustained a total of 67 blunt vascular injuries. Motor vehicle collisions accounted for 92% of the injuries. The median ISS was 34 [interquartile range (IQR) 24-43]. The distribution of blunt vascular injuries was extremity (21), thorax (20), abdomen and pelvis (19), and head and neck (7). Endovascular repair was employed in 12 patients (ten blunt aortic injury, one carotid-cavernous sinus fistula, one external iliac artery). Of the extremity injuries, primary amputation was undertaken in 8 (38.1%) and secondary amputation in 2 (9.5%). The total amputation rate was 48%. There were 17 (28.3%) deaths, of which 11 (64.7%) were directly attributable to the vascular injury and 6 (35.3%) of these occurred on the operating table from exsanguination, the majority from injuries to the abdominal vena cava. Blunt vascular injury is uncommon in the patient with multiple trauma but confers substantial morbidity and mortality. In those cases with peripheral injuries, delays in referral to definitive care frequently exceed the ischaemic time, resulting in a high rate of amputations. Central injuries, especially those of the vena cava, account for the majority of directly attributable deaths.

Predictors of Outcome in Infrainguinal Bypass for Trauma