• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.135-142
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• 2018

Purpose: When hemodynamically unstable patients with blunt major trauma arrive at the emergency department (ED), the safety of performing early whole-body computed tomography (WBCT) is concerning. Some clinicians perform central venous catheterization (CVC) before WBCT (pre-computed tomography [CT] group) for hemodynamic stabilization. However, as no study has reported the factors affecting this decision, we compared clinical characteristics and outcomes of the pre- and post-CT groups and determined factors affecting this decision. Methods: This retrospective study included 70 hemodynamically unstable patients with chest or/and abdominal blunt injury who underwent WBCT and CVC between March 2013 and November 2017. Results: Univariate analysis revealed that the injury severity score, intubation, pulse pressure, focused assessment with sonography in trauma positivity score, and pH were different between the pre-CT (34 patients, 48.6%) and post-CT (all, p<0.05) groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that injury severity score (ISS) and intubation were factors affecting the decision to perform CVC before CT (p=0.003 and p=0.043). Regarding clinical outcomes, the interval from ED arrival to CT (p=0.011) and definite bleeding control (p=0.038), and hospital and intensive care unit lengths of stay (p=0.018 and p=0.053) were longer in the pre-CT group than in the post-CT group. Although not significant, the pre-CT group had lower survival rates at 24 hours and 28 days than the post-CT group (p=0.168 and p=0.226). Conclusions: Clinicians have a tendency to perform CVC before CT in patients with blunt major trauma and high ISS and intubation.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.19-23
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• 2018

Traumatic diaphragmatic rupture is an unusual finding that may occur after blunt trauma. In addition, diaphragmatic rupture occurring bilaterally is extremely rare. We experienced a 6-year-old boy with bilateral diaphragmatic rupture, whom survived after surgical treatment by open thoracotomy but, complicated with spinal cord injury discovered after surgery.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.146-150
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• 2016

Purpose: Traumatic aortic injuries are rare, but life threatening condition. They usually occur after high velocity impact on the chest or abdomen such as traffic accident or fall. We report the experiences of the traumatic aortic injuries at a single center. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of nine patients with aortic injury resulting from the blunt trauma from Jan. 2010 to May. 2016. Results: The mean age was $51.1{\pm}20.8$ years old, and ten (90.9%) were men. The mechanisms of injury were traffic accidents in seven patients (motorcycle accidents; 3, car accidents; 4), and four in fall injury. Most common injured sites were thoracic aorta (9, 81.8%). Aortic injuries were repaired by endovascular approach in four patients, and by open graft surgery in four. Two patients were managed conservatively. Nine patients survived without any complications. Conclusion: We had experienced different approaches for management of aortic injuries after blunt trauma according to locations and severity of lesions.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.180-183
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• 2016

A diaphragmatic injury is uncommon, but occurs more frequently with injury to other organs. Particularly, a diaphragmatic accompanied by a pericardial injury is very rare. The authors report a case of incidentally detecting a pericardial injury during surgery for a diaphragmatic injury due to abdominal blunt trauma.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.201-205
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• 2006

Tension viscerothorax (gastrothorax) is rare life-threatening disease which is caused by air trapped in viscera. A distended viscera in the hemi-thorax shifts the mediastinal structures and causes extra-cardiac obstructive shock. A defective diaphragm is caused by abdominal trauma or a congenital anomaly. Traumatic diaphragmatic injury can be missed until herniation develops several years after blunt trauma. In our case, a 10-year old boy developed hemodynamic compromise in the emergency department. Three years earlier, he had suffered blunt abdominal trauma during a pedestrian traffic accident, but there was no evidence of diaphragmatic injury at that time. He was successfully resuscitated by gastric decompression and an emergent thoracic operation. The operation finding revealed a traumatic diaphragmatic injury. Tension viscerothorax is a rare, but catastrophic, condition, so we suggest that addition of tension viscerothorax to the Advanced Trauma and Life Support (ATLS) guidelines may be helpful.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.151-158
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• 2018

Purpose: The regional emergency medical centers manage the patients with major blunt trauma according to the process appropriate to each hospital rather than standardized protocol of the major trauma centers. The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and influence on prognosis of additional cervical-thoracic-lumbar-spine computed tomography (CTL-spine CT) scan in diagnosis of spinal injury from the victim of major blunt trauma with impaired consciousness. Methods: The study included patients visited the urban emergency medical center with major blunt trauma who were over 18 years of age from January 2013 to December 2016. Data were collected from retrospective review of medical records. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were measured for evaluation of the performance of diagnostic methods. Results: One hundred patients with Glasgow coma scale ${\leq}13$ underwent additional CTL-spine CT scan. Mechanism of injury was in the following order: driver, pedestrian traffic accident, fall and passenger accident. Thirty-one patients were diagnosed of spinal injury, six of them underwent surgical management. The sensitivity of chest, abdomen and pelvis CT (CAP CT) was 72%, specificity 97%, false positive rate 3%, false negative rate 28% and diagnostic accuracy 87%. Eleven patients were not diagnosed of spinal injury with CAP CT and C-spine lateral view, but all of them were diagnosed of stable fractures. Conclusions: C-spine CT scan be actively considered in the initial examination process. When CAP CT scan is performed in major blunt trauma patients with impaired consciousness, CTL-spine CT scan or simple spinal radiography has no significant effect on the prognosis of the patient and can be performed if necessary.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.70-73
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• 2017

Traumatic abdominal wall hernia is a rare condition that can follow any blunt trauma to the abdomen. Generally there has been an increase in the incidence of blunt abdominal trauma, although the case of traumatic abdominal wall hernias are rare. Probably due to the elasticity of the abdominal wall for resisting the shear forces generated by a traumatic impacts. In this case, we are reporting 1 rare case, diagnosed as an abdominal wall hernia associated with herniation of bowel loops due to blunt trauma without intra-abdominal injury including peritoneum.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• 제28권10호
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• pp.924-927
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• 1995

Main bronchial injury after blunt trauma is very rare in all bronchial injuries and the pathogenesis is variable and not well known in everycases. We report a case of complete transsection of right main bronchus by blunt trauma. This 24-year old patient was transferred from a local hospital with a chest tube. Because of the severe subcutaneous emphysema and tension pneumothorax, we inserted one more chest tube resulting no obvious interval change. With the impression of bronchial injury, we performed an exploratory thoracotomy. We couldn't proceed bronchoscopy in the operation room because of his unstable vital sign. After opening of the chest wall, we could identify completely transsected right main bronchus. We anastomosed the bronchus with 4~0 Vicryl interruptedly. After operation, the patient was recovered without any complication.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.89-93
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• 2014

Bile leaks are complications that are much more frequent after a high-grade liver injury than after a low-grade liver injury. In this report, we describe the management of bile leaks that were encountered after angiographic embolization in a 27-year-old man with a high-grade blunt liver injury. He had undergone an abdominal irrigation and drainage with a laparotomy on post-injury day (PID) 16 due to bile peritonitis and continuous bile leaks from percutaneous abdominal drainage. He required three percutaneous drainage procedures for a biloma and liver abscesses in hepatic segments 4, 5 and 8, as well as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography with biliary stent placement into the intrahepatic biloma via the common bile duct. We detected communication between the biloma and the bilateral intrahepatic duct by using a tubogram. Follow-up abdominal computed tomography on PID 47 showed partial thrombosis of the inferior vena cava at the suprahepatic level, and the patient received anticoagulation therapy with low molecular weight heparin and rivaroxaban. As symptomatic improvement was achieved by using conservative management, the percutaneous drains were removed and the patient was discharged on PID 82.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제34권4호
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• pp.242-247
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• 2021

Purpose: Blunt cardiac injuries (BCI) have a wide clinical spectrum, ranging from asymptomatic myocardial contusion to cardiac rupture and death. BCIs rarely require surgical intervention, but can be rapidly fatal, requiring prompt evaluation and surgical treatment in some cases. The aim of this study was to identify potential factors associated with in-hospital mortality after surgery in patients with BCI. Methods: The medical records of 15 patients who had undergone emergency cardiac surgery for BCI between January 2014 and August 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. We included trauma patients older than 18 years admitted to Regional Trauma Center, Gachon University Gil Medical Center during the study period. Clinical and laboratory variables were compared between survivors and non-survivors. Results: Non-survivors showed a significantly higher Injury Severity Score (p=0.001) and Abbreviated Injury Scale in the chest region (p=0.001) than survivors. American Association for the Surgery of Trauma-Organ Injury Scale Grade V injuries were significantly more common in non-survivors than in survivors (p=0.031). Non-survivors had significantly more preoperative packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusions (p=0.019) and were significantly more likely to experience preoperative cardiac arrest (p=0.001) than survivors. Initial pH (p=0.010), lactate (p=0.026), and base excess (BE; p=0.026) levels showed significant differences between the two groups. Conclusions: Initial pH, lactate, BE, ventricular injury, the amount of preoperative PRBC transfusions, and preoperative cardiac arrest were potential predictors of in-hospital mortality.