Traditional trauma teaching is to admit trauma patients with abdominal wall ecchymosis caused by seat belts (seat belt sign) for fear of missing a hollow viscus injury leading to peritonitis and sepsis.
Over the past few years there have been studies pointing toward the safety of discharging blunt abdominal trauma patients with a negative CT even if they do have a seat belt sign.
In this most recent study, a negative CT was defined as
1. No free fluid (free fluid was the leading indicator of occult hollow viscus injury)
2. No solid organ injury
3. No bowel wall irregular contours, thickening, hematoma or air
4. No abdominal wall soft tissue contusion
5. No mesenteric stranding or hematoma
6. No bowel dilatation
If the patient’s CT did not include any of these findings, there was a 0.01% chance of finding a delayed hollow viscus injury. The authors conclude it is safe to discharge patients meeting these criteria.
If we include no rebound or guarding on physical exam along with a negative CT scan, it appears to be safe to discharge trauma patient’s with seat belt sign.
This meta-analyisis looked at whether obesity was a protective factor for penetrating trauma (the armour phenomenon). The authors concluded that insteaed of being protective, obesity added to morbidity and mortality.
"Obese patients that sustained stab injuries underwent more nontherapeutic operations. Obese patients that sustained gunshot injuries had longer intensive care and total hospital length of stay. Obese patients suffered more respiratory complications and were at an increased risk of death during their admission."
Further evidence that obesity is a major health concern in both medical and trauma pateints.
In this prospective, observational study performed at 25 urban trauma centers, police transport (18%) was compared to Advanced Life Support (ALS) transport (81%) for mortality in penetrating trauma patients with an injury severity score over 16. There was no difference in outcome for those transported by ALS.
The authors conclude "Police transport of penetrating trauma patients in urban locations results in similar outcomes compared with ALS. Immediate transport to definitive trauma care should be emphasized in this patient population."
The use of the shock index (systolic blood pressure/heart rate) value under 0.9 has been shown to be effective in predicting the need for mass blood transfusion as well as mortality for trauma patients age 16-64. Using age times shock index has been shown to be an effective marker of mortality and the need for transfer/transport to a trauma center in those over age 65. The change in shock index over time is also useful for pre-hospital providers deciding the appropriate destination for traumatically injured individuals.
A fourteen center study enrolling 1623 trauma patients (53% penetrating) comparing cold-stored whole blood vs. blood component products found no difference in AKI, thromboembolism, or pulmonary complications. And more interestingly, patients receiving whole blood were 48% less likely to die than those receiving standard blood component products. Add this data point to a growing trend toward cold-stored whole blood for trauma patients.
Manageing the airway of a trauma patient presents difficulties because of both anatomic and physiologic derangement.
The Bottom Line: Trauma patients requiring intubation are a challenge and should be managed by the most expereinced person in the room. No study shows superiority of direct vs.video laryngoscopy. Use the technique you are most facile with and develop more techniques through courses, mentoring, and expanding your repertoire in less ill patients first. Use induction agents with lower liklelihood of causing hypotension like Etomidate and ketamine (avoid propofol and benzodiazepenes). Avoid hypoxia, hypotension and hypocarbia by resucitating as much as possible prior to intubation (use blood products and pressors where appropriate). Have a plan, a back up plan, and know when to switch to a surgical airway approach. This ia a low frequency, high risk proceedure. Mentally visualize yourself doing this proceedure regualrly to create a comfort level when it is actually needed.
PEARLS:
1. Blood/Emesis A. Use a double suction set up with one suction placed into the airway near the esophagus and then moved to the left of the mouth with the second used by the intubator to clear their view.
B. If you can't visualize becaue of vomit/emesis it is very likely BVM and super glotic airways are not going to be possible and you will need to move to a surgical (front of neck) airway.
2. Limited Jaw Opening Cervical collars can impede jaw opening. Loosen/open the collar to allow more jaw opening. Studies show that there is limited movement of C-Spine when the intubator uses caution not to flex the neck during intubation meaning the collar does not have to be in place. No study shows diret or video laryngoscopy to be superior.
3. Blunt or penetrating neck injury Highest level of difficulty. Should be most expereienced intubator. Can use an awake intubation technique if you are adept at this method. Go with the airway approach that gives YOU the best first pass success chance. Another situation where BVM or suprglotic airway device may not work and requires surgical airway. May require low tracheostomy approach.
4. Hypoxia Avoiding hypoxia is a must especially in traumatic brain injured patients. Pre-oxygenate and use the airway technique that is going to give you the best first past chance of success.
5. Hypotension: A. Resuscitate with blood products as much as possible before intubation. B. Use induction agents that are the most hemodynamically neutral such as Etomidate or Ketamine (safe in head injury patients!)
6.. Hypocarbia: Congrats on getting the tube! Now slow down your bagging. Hypocarbia leads to increased injury in traumatic brain injured patients.
(Please note the prior version of this pearl was incorrect with respect to the images referenced. This version is corrected.)
Patient s/p blunt chest trauma. CXR (image 1) vs. lung ultrasound (image 2), do you see any inconsistencies?
44 y/o female restrained driver s/p motor vehicle crash complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath.
Lidocaine with Epinephrine and it use on Fingers and Toes
It has been taught for a long time that Lidocaine with Epinephrine should not be used on fingers, toes, ears and nose [There has to be a kid's song in there somewhere] due to the risk of vasoconstricition/vasospasm and possible digitial infarcation.
The short story is that this practice is not supported by the literature, and there are now numerous publications that have shown that lidocaine with epinephrine is safe for use on the finger tips. It turns out the the original case reports were submitted with procaine and epinephrine and not lidocaine with epinephrine. Most of the cases of digital infarction where with straight procaine that is now thought to have been contaiminated or too acidic pH close to 1 when injected.
The effects of epinephrine last approximately 6 hours. This time is well within the accepted limit of ischemia for fingers that has been established in digitial replanation.
So why use Lidocaine with Epinephrine:
Trauma patients over age 65 should be cared for by a multidisciplinary trauma team. Here is another study affirming that patients over age 65 do worse when having similar injuries to those under 65. Interestingly, those under 65 had more operative repairs of their orthopedic injuries as well.
The authors conclude: “Although the ISS and NISS were similar, mortality was significantly higher among patients aged ≥ 65 years compared to patients < 65 years of age”.
Also it bears further investigation of why those under 65 received more operative repairs
