COVID-19 is having a complex impact on trauma centers. While injury rates are down worldwide, hospitals are still receiving injured patients. And in many ways the pandemic has made trauma care more complicated than ever. What have trauma programs done to maintain patient access and standards of care during the coronavirus pandemic? To find out,…
Author: Robert Fojut
Italy is the first Western nation to experience the full impact of coronavirus disease. The pandemic is stretching the country’s ability to care for older adults and patients with serious underlying medical conditions. But how is COVID-19 affecting systems of care for trauma patients? To find out, I asked trauma professionals in Italy how the…
Trauma patients who received cold-stored whole blood as their initial blood product were less likely to die in the trauma bay than patients who received standard blood component therapy, according to a new study published in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. The use of whole blood in initial resuscitation did not increase…
Results from a large prehospital care study show that patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) benefit significantly from four simple field interventions. The study validates the use of aggressive measures to prevent or treat hypoxia, hyperventilation and hypotension in TBI patients. The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) study was led by a team…
Blunt abdominal injury is the third most common cause of trauma mortality in children. It is also the most common unrecognized fatal injury in the pediatric population. To manage these patients effectively, physicians must be very familiar with children’s response to abdominal trauma, recognize important sensory cues and avoid common pitfalls. Yet most injured children…
The Orange Book encourages trauma providers to minimize the use of ionizing radiation for pediatric patients. Five recent studies that weigh the risks and benefits of imaging utilization could help trauma teams reduce CT use for injured children. The studies were analyzed by the staff of JournalFeed, a website that provides daily peer-reviewed summaries of…
A group of trauma surgeons — more than three-quarters of whom are gun owners — has released a series of recommendations for reducing firearm injury and death. The recommendations represent a broad consensus of surgeons from across the U.S., and they include a wide spectrum of strategies for reducing gun injury. The surgeons are part…
Poor communication between nurses and physicians in a trauma surgical intensive care unit can increase the risk of adverse events. To improve SICU communication and teamwork, trauma providers at Stanford Hospital developed a nurse-driven rounding process. The new process emphasizes nursing input and leadership, structured communication and timely decision making. The Stanford team described their…
Recent mass casualty incidents in the U.S. have changed the way we think about traumatic injury. Trauma leaders now know that the key to survival for many victims is immediate bleeding control provided by first responders or private citizens. According to Lenworth Jacobs, MD, MPH, FACS, chairman of the Hartford Consensus and leader of the…
The 2018 Creighton Trauma Symposium will take place on June 15 in Omaha, Nebraska. The focus of this year’s event is the Stop the Bleed campaign. This year’s special symposium guest is Lenworth Jacobs, MD, MPH, FACS, chairman of the Hartford Consensus and leader of the ACS Stop the Bleed Program. During his keynote speech,…