EAST 2016

SAN ANTONIO – Don’t withhold antiplatelet or heparin therapy in patients with blunt cerebrovascular injury, even if they have concomitant traumatic brain or solid organ injuries, advised researchers from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis.

With close monitoring, “initiation of early antithrombotic therapy for patients with BCVI [blunt cerebrovascular injury] and concomitant TBI [traumatic brain injury] or SOI [solid organ injury] does not increase the risk of worsening TBI or SOI above baseline.” It is safe, effective, and “should not be withheld,” the researchers concluded after a review of 119 BCVI patients with concomitant injuries.

© Stockbyte/Thinkstock

Seventy four (62%) had TBIs, 26 (22%) had SOIs, and 19 (16%) had both. At some institutions, antithrombotic therapy – the mainstay for BCVI to prevent secondary ischemic stroke – would have been delayed or withheld for fear of triggering hemorrhagic complications.

But at the Health Science Center in Memphis, “we have an extremely cooperative group of neurosurgeons who take BCVI as seriously as we do, and actually allow us, more often than not, to start antithrombotic therapy pretty much immediately after the injury is identified,” investigator and surgery resident Dr. Charles Shahan said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

As a result, 85 patients (71%) received heparin infusions with goal-activated partial thromboplastin times of 45-60 seconds, and the rest antiplatelet therapy, typically 81-mg aspirin. The center generally uses heparin for TBI patients because of its short half-life, and aspirin for others.

Antithrombosed BCVI patients did as well as did historical controls. TBIs deteriorated – meaning worsening on clinical or CT exam, or delayed operative intervention – in 7%, vs. 10% of TBI patients without BCVI (P = .34). Three percent of SOI patients had delayed laparotomies vs. 5% of SOI patients without BCVI (P = .54). None of the BCVI patients stopped antithrombotics because of complications.

The results held regardless of the type of TBI, SOI, or antithrombotic used.

Overall, 11 patients (9%) had BCVI-related strokes. Without antithrombotic therapy, stroke rates in BCVI can approach 40%.

“Our extremely early use of antithrombotic therapy does not appear to increase our rate of worsening of our hemorrhagic injures and also gets our stroke rate within acceptable limits,” Dr. Shahan said.

The mean age in the study was 38, and just over half the subjects were men.

Dr. Shahan had no disclosures

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Don’t withhold antiplatelet or heparin therapy in patients with blunt cerebrovascular injury, even if they have concomitant traumatic brain or solid organ injuries, advised researchers from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis.

With close monitoring, “initiation of early antithrombotic therapy for patients with BCVI [blunt cerebrovascular injury] and concomitant TBI [traumatic brain injury] or SOI [solid organ injury] does not increase the risk of worsening TBI or SOI above baseline.” It is safe, effective, and “should not be withheld,” the researchers concluded after a review of 119 BCVI patients with concomitant injuries.

© Stockbyte/Thinkstock

Seventy four (62%) had TBIs, 26 (22%) had SOIs, and 19 (16%) had both. At some institutions, antithrombotic therapy – the mainstay for BCVI to prevent secondary ischemic stroke – would have been delayed or withheld for fear of triggering hemorrhagic complications.

But at the Health Science Center in Memphis, “we have an extremely cooperative group of neurosurgeons who take BCVI as seriously as we do, and actually allow us, more often than not, to start antithrombotic therapy pretty much immediately after the injury is identified,” investigator and surgery resident Dr. Charles Shahan said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

As a result, 85 patients (71%) received heparin infusions with goal-activated partial thromboplastin times of 45-60 seconds, and the rest antiplatelet therapy, typically 81-mg aspirin. The center generally uses heparin for TBI patients because of its short half-life, and aspirin for others.

Antithrombosed BCVI patients did as well as did historical controls. TBIs deteriorated – meaning worsening on clinical or CT exam, or delayed operative intervention – in 7%, vs. 10% of TBI patients without BCVI (P = .34). Three percent of SOI patients had delayed laparotomies vs. 5% of SOI patients without BCVI (P = .54). None of the BCVI patients stopped antithrombotics because of complications.

The results held regardless of the type of TBI, SOI, or antithrombotic used.

Overall, 11 patients (9%) had BCVI-related strokes. Without antithrombotic therapy, stroke rates in BCVI can approach 40%.

“Our extremely early use of antithrombotic therapy does not appear to increase our rate of worsening of our hemorrhagic injures and also gets our stroke rate within acceptable limits,” Dr. Shahan said.

The mean age in the study was 38, and just over half the subjects were men.

Dr. Shahan had no disclosures

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Don’t withhold antiplatelet or heparin therapy in patients with blunt cerebrovascular injury, even if they have concomitant traumatic brain or solid organ injuries, advised researchers from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis.

With close monitoring, “initiation of early antithrombotic therapy for patients with BCVI [blunt cerebrovascular injury] and concomitant TBI [traumatic brain injury] or SOI [solid organ injury] does not increase the risk of worsening TBI or SOI above baseline.” It is safe, effective, and “should not be withheld,” the researchers concluded after a review of 119 BCVI patients with concomitant injuries.

© Stockbyte/Thinkstock

Seventy four (62%) had TBIs, 26 (22%) had SOIs, and 19 (16%) had both. At some institutions, antithrombotic therapy – the mainstay for BCVI to prevent secondary ischemic stroke – would have been delayed or withheld for fear of triggering hemorrhagic complications.

But at the Health Science Center in Memphis, “we have an extremely cooperative group of neurosurgeons who take BCVI as seriously as we do, and actually allow us, more often than not, to start antithrombotic therapy pretty much immediately after the injury is identified,” investigator and surgery resident Dr. Charles Shahan said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

As a result, 85 patients (71%) received heparin infusions with goal-activated partial thromboplastin times of 45-60 seconds, and the rest antiplatelet therapy, typically 81-mg aspirin. The center generally uses heparin for TBI patients because of its short half-life, and aspirin for others.

Antithrombosed BCVI patients did as well as did historical controls. TBIs deteriorated – meaning worsening on clinical or CT exam, or delayed operative intervention – in 7%, vs. 10% of TBI patients without BCVI (P = .34). Three percent of SOI patients had delayed laparotomies vs. 5% of SOI patients without BCVI (P = .54). None of the BCVI patients stopped antithrombotics because of complications.

The results held regardless of the type of TBI, SOI, or antithrombotic used.

Overall, 11 patients (9%) had BCVI-related strokes. Without antithrombotic therapy, stroke rates in BCVI can approach 40%.

“Our extremely early use of antithrombotic therapy does not appear to increase our rate of worsening of our hemorrhagic injures and also gets our stroke rate within acceptable limits,” Dr. Shahan said.

The mean age in the study was 38, and just over half the subjects were men.

Dr. Shahan had no disclosures

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Prehospital blood transfusions during air medical transport did not improve 24-hour or in-hospital mortality at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville.

Investigators there reviewed 5,581 patients transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt from the scene of injury from the period of 2007-2013; they excluded patients who died on the helipad or in the ED. Average flight time was 48 minutes; 231 patients (4%) received prehospital blood transfusions (PBT) of up to two units of O negative packed red blood cells, which is all that the helicopters carried. The decision to transfuse was up to helicopter personnel who were advised to transfuse hemodynamically unstable patients and those who had lost more than a half liter of blood.

©Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock

Vanderbilt reviewed its data because although PBT has become widespread in air medical transport, results from military and civilian studies are mixed. “A lot of evidence indicates that early, aggressive resuscitation with blood products improves survival once patients arrive at the hospital. It makes sense that starting the process early would improve outcomes, but relatively little is known about the prehospital environment,” said investigator and general surgery resident Dr. Benjamin Miller.

PBT didn’t seem to help at Vanderbilt. On multivariable regression, in-flight transfusion did not improve 24-hour mortality (OR 1.22; 95% CI 0.61-2.44) or overall in-hospital mortality (OR 1.20; 95% CI 0.55-1.79). It was the same story when 195 transfused patients were matched to 195 who were not transfused, based on mechanism of injury, scene vital signs, injury severity, travel duration, and other measures. Even with matching, PBT did not improve 24-hour mortality (OR 1.04; 95% CI 0.54-1.98) or overall mortality (OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.56-1.96).

There was a trend for improved 24-hour survival with transfusion when injury severity scores were below 20, but it wasn’t statistically significant, perhaps because few of the less injured patients died.

“Our results show no effect of PBT on 24-hour and overall in-hospital mortality. It’s puzzling to us because it’s counterintuitive to the damage control resuscitation strategy,” Dr. Miller said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

The findings aren’t robust enough for Vanderbilt to cancel PBT, but they do suggest possible areas for improvement.

Maybe “one or two units of blood are not enough for patients who are severely injured and rapidly exsanguinating, or [maybe] fresh frozen plasma or platelets are needed. Maybe the trigger for transfusion is too low, or too high. It’s time from a prospective study,” Dr. Miller said.

Vanderbilt doesn’t use tranexamic acid to control trauma bleeding. The study didn’t capture volume of crystalloid infused, serum markers of shock, or coagulation study results.

Subjects were in their late 30s, on average, and 70% were men. Transfusions were more likely in younger patients and those with penetrating injuries, poorer at-scene vital signs and Glasgow coma scores, more severe injuries, and lower hematocrits. With the exception of younger age, those factors were also associated with death.

The investigators had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Prehospital blood transfusions during air medical transport did not improve 24-hour or in-hospital mortality at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville.

Investigators there reviewed 5,581 patients transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt from the scene of injury from the period of 2007-2013; they excluded patients who died on the helipad or in the ED. Average flight time was 48 minutes; 231 patients (4%) received prehospital blood transfusions (PBT) of up to two units of O negative packed red blood cells, which is all that the helicopters carried. The decision to transfuse was up to helicopter personnel who were advised to transfuse hemodynamically unstable patients and those who had lost more than a half liter of blood.

©Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock

Vanderbilt reviewed its data because although PBT has become widespread in air medical transport, results from military and civilian studies are mixed. “A lot of evidence indicates that early, aggressive resuscitation with blood products improves survival once patients arrive at the hospital. It makes sense that starting the process early would improve outcomes, but relatively little is known about the prehospital environment,” said investigator and general surgery resident Dr. Benjamin Miller.

PBT didn’t seem to help at Vanderbilt. On multivariable regression, in-flight transfusion did not improve 24-hour mortality (OR 1.22; 95% CI 0.61-2.44) or overall in-hospital mortality (OR 1.20; 95% CI 0.55-1.79). It was the same story when 195 transfused patients were matched to 195 who were not transfused, based on mechanism of injury, scene vital signs, injury severity, travel duration, and other measures. Even with matching, PBT did not improve 24-hour mortality (OR 1.04; 95% CI 0.54-1.98) or overall mortality (OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.56-1.96).

There was a trend for improved 24-hour survival with transfusion when injury severity scores were below 20, but it wasn’t statistically significant, perhaps because few of the less injured patients died.

“Our results show no effect of PBT on 24-hour and overall in-hospital mortality. It’s puzzling to us because it’s counterintuitive to the damage control resuscitation strategy,” Dr. Miller said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

The findings aren’t robust enough for Vanderbilt to cancel PBT, but they do suggest possible areas for improvement.

Maybe “one or two units of blood are not enough for patients who are severely injured and rapidly exsanguinating, or [maybe] fresh frozen plasma or platelets are needed. Maybe the trigger for transfusion is too low, or too high. It’s time from a prospective study,” Dr. Miller said.

Vanderbilt doesn’t use tranexamic acid to control trauma bleeding. The study didn’t capture volume of crystalloid infused, serum markers of shock, or coagulation study results.

Subjects were in their late 30s, on average, and 70% were men. Transfusions were more likely in younger patients and those with penetrating injuries, poorer at-scene vital signs and Glasgow coma scores, more severe injuries, and lower hematocrits. With the exception of younger age, those factors were also associated with death.

The investigators had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Prehospital blood transfusions during air medical transport did not improve 24-hour or in-hospital mortality at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville.

Investigators there reviewed 5,581 patients transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt from the scene of injury from the period of 2007-2013; they excluded patients who died on the helipad or in the ED. Average flight time was 48 minutes; 231 patients (4%) received prehospital blood transfusions (PBT) of up to two units of O negative packed red blood cells, which is all that the helicopters carried. The decision to transfuse was up to helicopter personnel who were advised to transfuse hemodynamically unstable patients and those who had lost more than a half liter of blood.

©Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock

Vanderbilt reviewed its data because although PBT has become widespread in air medical transport, results from military and civilian studies are mixed. “A lot of evidence indicates that early, aggressive resuscitation with blood products improves survival once patients arrive at the hospital. It makes sense that starting the process early would improve outcomes, but relatively little is known about the prehospital environment,” said investigator and general surgery resident Dr. Benjamin Miller.

PBT didn’t seem to help at Vanderbilt. On multivariable regression, in-flight transfusion did not improve 24-hour mortality (OR 1.22; 95% CI 0.61-2.44) or overall in-hospital mortality (OR 1.20; 95% CI 0.55-1.79). It was the same story when 195 transfused patients were matched to 195 who were not transfused, based on mechanism of injury, scene vital signs, injury severity, travel duration, and other measures. Even with matching, PBT did not improve 24-hour mortality (OR 1.04; 95% CI 0.54-1.98) or overall mortality (OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.56-1.96).

There was a trend for improved 24-hour survival with transfusion when injury severity scores were below 20, but it wasn’t statistically significant, perhaps because few of the less injured patients died.

“Our results show no effect of PBT on 24-hour and overall in-hospital mortality. It’s puzzling to us because it’s counterintuitive to the damage control resuscitation strategy,” Dr. Miller said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

The findings aren’t robust enough for Vanderbilt to cancel PBT, but they do suggest possible areas for improvement.

Maybe “one or two units of blood are not enough for patients who are severely injured and rapidly exsanguinating, or [maybe] fresh frozen plasma or platelets are needed. Maybe the trigger for transfusion is too low, or too high. It’s time from a prospective study,” Dr. Miller said.

Vanderbilt doesn’t use tranexamic acid to control trauma bleeding. The study didn’t capture volume of crystalloid infused, serum markers of shock, or coagulation study results.

Subjects were in their late 30s, on average, and 70% were men. Transfusions were more likely in younger patients and those with penetrating injuries, poorer at-scene vital signs and Glasgow coma scores, more severe injuries, and lower hematocrits. With the exception of younger age, those factors were also associated with death.

The investigators had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Tourniquets are being overemphasized in preparations for mass shootings in the United States, according to a review by the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care of wounding patterns in 12 mass shootings.

Since the 2012 shootings in Newtown, Conn., efforts to improve survival have tended to emphasize tourniquets to stop bleeding from wounded limbs. The recently-launched federal “Stop the Bleed” campaign promotes public awareness of compression and tourniquets, and the American College of Surgeons and other groups recently called for public education and use of tourniquets as one of many responses to mass-casualty and active-shooter events, stating that “the most significant preventable cause of death in the prehospital environment is external hemorrhage.” There are thoughts of making tourniquets at least as common as automated external defibrillators in public settings.

The efforts are driven by combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, where about half of wounds were to arms and legs, and tourniquets saved many lives.

Wikimedia Creative Commons License/INDNAM

Tourniquets are important especially for civilian bombings, but fatalities in civilian mass shootings – shootings with at least four deaths in which killing is the primary aim – are from head and chest wounds, not extremity wounds. The emphasis on bleeding control overshadows public education about other simple interventions that could be more useful in shootings, according to emergency physician Dr. Reed Smith, medical director of the Arlington County (Va.) Fire Department and cofounder and cochairman of the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC).

“We need a civilian perspective on civilian incidents, not a military perspective,” he said at the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma scientific assembly.

Dr. Smith and other C-TECC investigators reviewed autopsy reports from 12 U.S. civilian mass shootings from the period of 1996-2012. They tried to get data for more, but ran into significant resistance from authorities.

There were 371 bullet wounds and 139 deaths, an average of 2.7 wounds per victim but a range of 1-10. About 40% of deaths were from shots to the head; another 40% from shots to the chest or upper back; and the rest from shots to the face/neck, abdomen/lower back, or multiple regions.

“We looked at every one of these events, and with the exception of the Gabby Giffords Tucson shooting, no tourniquets were used. There were no cases of major peripheral vascular injury, and no fatalities from extremity exsanguination,” Dr. Smith said.

The investigators estimated that nine fatalities were potentially survivable, without injuries to the heart, brain, or major blood vessels, and definitive care available within 60 minutes. The victims died from face and torso wounds, not wounds to the limbs.

“Wounding in active-shooter events differs from combat and may require different therapeutic emphasis. Although tourniquets and external hemorrhage control techniques hold value, their role in active-shooter events may be overemphasized as a means to decrease fatality. The focus on external hemorrhage is important, but it’s not enough,” Dr. Smith said.

Additional interventions could be taught for every step in the chain of contact, from citizen to trauma surgeon, that could have greater benefit. Teachers, for instance, could be taught to roll victims on their sides and clear out their mouths to keep airways open, and to keep them warm to prevent hypothermia until help arrives. Police could learn to insert nasal airways, and occlude sucking chest wounds. Fire/EMS could start initial damage control. “Everything builds,” Dr. Smith said.

C-TECC made many recommendations for enhanced mass-causality response its 2015 Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Guidelines.

Dr. Smith had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Tourniquets are being overemphasized in preparations for mass shootings in the United States, according to a review by the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care of wounding patterns in 12 mass shootings.

Since the 2012 shootings in Newtown, Conn., efforts to improve survival have tended to emphasize tourniquets to stop bleeding from wounded limbs. The recently-launched federal “Stop the Bleed” campaign promotes public awareness of compression and tourniquets, and the American College of Surgeons and other groups recently called for public education and use of tourniquets as one of many responses to mass-casualty and active-shooter events, stating that “the most significant preventable cause of death in the prehospital environment is external hemorrhage.” There are thoughts of making tourniquets at least as common as automated external defibrillators in public settings.

The efforts are driven by combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, where about half of wounds were to arms and legs, and tourniquets saved many lives.

Wikimedia Creative Commons License/INDNAM

Tourniquets are important especially for civilian bombings, but fatalities in civilian mass shootings – shootings with at least four deaths in which killing is the primary aim – are from head and chest wounds, not extremity wounds. The emphasis on bleeding control overshadows public education about other simple interventions that could be more useful in shootings, according to emergency physician Dr. Reed Smith, medical director of the Arlington County (Va.) Fire Department and cofounder and cochairman of the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC).

“We need a civilian perspective on civilian incidents, not a military perspective,” he said at the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma scientific assembly.

Dr. Smith and other C-TECC investigators reviewed autopsy reports from 12 U.S. civilian mass shootings from the period of 1996-2012. They tried to get data for more, but ran into significant resistance from authorities.

There were 371 bullet wounds and 139 deaths, an average of 2.7 wounds per victim but a range of 1-10. About 40% of deaths were from shots to the head; another 40% from shots to the chest or upper back; and the rest from shots to the face/neck, abdomen/lower back, or multiple regions.

“We looked at every one of these events, and with the exception of the Gabby Giffords Tucson shooting, no tourniquets were used. There were no cases of major peripheral vascular injury, and no fatalities from extremity exsanguination,” Dr. Smith said.

The investigators estimated that nine fatalities were potentially survivable, without injuries to the heart, brain, or major blood vessels, and definitive care available within 60 minutes. The victims died from face and torso wounds, not wounds to the limbs.

“Wounding in active-shooter events differs from combat and may require different therapeutic emphasis. Although tourniquets and external hemorrhage control techniques hold value, their role in active-shooter events may be overemphasized as a means to decrease fatality. The focus on external hemorrhage is important, but it’s not enough,” Dr. Smith said.

Additional interventions could be taught for every step in the chain of contact, from citizen to trauma surgeon, that could have greater benefit. Teachers, for instance, could be taught to roll victims on their sides and clear out their mouths to keep airways open, and to keep them warm to prevent hypothermia until help arrives. Police could learn to insert nasal airways, and occlude sucking chest wounds. Fire/EMS could start initial damage control. “Everything builds,” Dr. Smith said.

C-TECC made many recommendations for enhanced mass-causality response its 2015 Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Guidelines.

Dr. Smith had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – Tourniquets are being overemphasized in preparations for mass shootings in the United States, according to a review by the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care of wounding patterns in 12 mass shootings.

Since the 2012 shootings in Newtown, Conn., efforts to improve survival have tended to emphasize tourniquets to stop bleeding from wounded limbs. The recently-launched federal “Stop the Bleed” campaign promotes public awareness of compression and tourniquets, and the American College of Surgeons and other groups recently called for public education and use of tourniquets as one of many responses to mass-casualty and active-shooter events, stating that “the most significant preventable cause of death in the prehospital environment is external hemorrhage.” There are thoughts of making tourniquets at least as common as automated external defibrillators in public settings.

The efforts are driven by combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, where about half of wounds were to arms and legs, and tourniquets saved many lives.

Wikimedia Creative Commons License/INDNAM

Tourniquets are important especially for civilian bombings, but fatalities in civilian mass shootings – shootings with at least four deaths in which killing is the primary aim – are from head and chest wounds, not extremity wounds. The emphasis on bleeding control overshadows public education about other simple interventions that could be more useful in shootings, according to emergency physician Dr. Reed Smith, medical director of the Arlington County (Va.) Fire Department and cofounder and cochairman of the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC).

“We need a civilian perspective on civilian incidents, not a military perspective,” he said at the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma scientific assembly.

Dr. Smith and other C-TECC investigators reviewed autopsy reports from 12 U.S. civilian mass shootings from the period of 1996-2012. They tried to get data for more, but ran into significant resistance from authorities.

There were 371 bullet wounds and 139 deaths, an average of 2.7 wounds per victim but a range of 1-10. About 40% of deaths were from shots to the head; another 40% from shots to the chest or upper back; and the rest from shots to the face/neck, abdomen/lower back, or multiple regions.

“We looked at every one of these events, and with the exception of the Gabby Giffords Tucson shooting, no tourniquets were used. There were no cases of major peripheral vascular injury, and no fatalities from extremity exsanguination,” Dr. Smith said.

The investigators estimated that nine fatalities were potentially survivable, without injuries to the heart, brain, or major blood vessels, and definitive care available within 60 minutes. The victims died from face and torso wounds, not wounds to the limbs.

“Wounding in active-shooter events differs from combat and may require different therapeutic emphasis. Although tourniquets and external hemorrhage control techniques hold value, their role in active-shooter events may be overemphasized as a means to decrease fatality. The focus on external hemorrhage is important, but it’s not enough,” Dr. Smith said.

Additional interventions could be taught for every step in the chain of contact, from citizen to trauma surgeon, that could have greater benefit. Teachers, for instance, could be taught to roll victims on their sides and clear out their mouths to keep airways open, and to keep them warm to prevent hypothermia until help arrives. Police could learn to insert nasal airways, and occlude sucking chest wounds. Fire/EMS could start initial damage control. “Everything builds,” Dr. Smith said.

C-TECC made many recommendations for enhanced mass-causality response its 2015 Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Guidelines.

Dr. Smith had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – In massively transfused patients undergoing damage control laparotomy, postop hypertonic saline improves primary fascial closure rates at first take-back, according to investigators from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

After controlling for age, injury severity, and resuscitation volumes, primary fascial closure (PFC) at first take-back was almost four times as likely in patients who received hypertonic saline (HTS) after bleeding damage control laparotomy (DCL) instead of traditional isotonic maintenance fluids (odds ratio, 3.82; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-14.31; P = .047).

“In a group of seriously injured bleeding trauma patients undergoing DCL, the use of HTS was associated with a lower fluid balance and a higher rate of PFC at the first take-back,” the investigators concluded.

It’s unclear if the results are because of the hypertonic saline drawing off more edema fluid and making early PFC more likely, or because HTS patients in the study received less fluid than their standard maintenance peers – 30 cc/hr of 3% sodium chloride versus 125 cc/hr of traditional isotonic fluids post op.

PFC at first take-back is known to reduce complications. Previous studies have shown that HTS improves PFC rates, but they included moderately injured patients who would have been closed early no matter what postop fluids they received. The investigators wanted to see how well HTS worked in more severely injured patients.

The study compared 54 adult DCL patients from 2010 to 2011 who received traditional isotonic postop maintenance with 41 from 2013 to 2014 on HTS, both for 72 hours or until fascial closure, whichever came first. The university switched to HTS around 2012 based on earlier studies, allowing for the comparison. Patients in both groups received at least three RBC units during surgery, according to investigator Dr. Lindley Folkerson, a surgery resident at the university.

Twenty-seven HTS patients (66%) were closed at first take-back, versus 33 (61%) in the traditional maintenance group. The median time for closure was 29 hours in the HTS group but 38 hours in traditional maintenance patients (P = .035).

There were no between-group demographic or injury severity differences, but because the university has become more conservative with DCL in recent years, the HTS patients were more hypotensive and had greater baseline fluid deficits at emergency department arrival, and received more blood in the operating room. Even so, HTS patients had significantly lower fluid balances at 24 and 48 hours.

The university hasn’t noticed increased kidney injuries with lower-volume HTS, but that might prove to be a problem in a larger study, Dr. Folkerson said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

A limitation of the study is that patients were resuscitated as their physicians saw fit, so some in the HTS group likely got isotonic fluids. “We did not restrict fluids because they were on the HTS protocol. Crystalloid, colloid, and blood products were given as deemed necessary by the bedside physician,” she said.

The investigators had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – In massively transfused patients undergoing damage control laparotomy, postop hypertonic saline improves primary fascial closure rates at first take-back, according to investigators from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

After controlling for age, injury severity, and resuscitation volumes, primary fascial closure (PFC) at first take-back was almost four times as likely in patients who received hypertonic saline (HTS) after bleeding damage control laparotomy (DCL) instead of traditional isotonic maintenance fluids (odds ratio, 3.82; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-14.31; P = .047).

“In a group of seriously injured bleeding trauma patients undergoing DCL, the use of HTS was associated with a lower fluid balance and a higher rate of PFC at the first take-back,” the investigators concluded.

It’s unclear if the results are because of the hypertonic saline drawing off more edema fluid and making early PFC more likely, or because HTS patients in the study received less fluid than their standard maintenance peers – 30 cc/hr of 3% sodium chloride versus 125 cc/hr of traditional isotonic fluids post op.

PFC at first take-back is known to reduce complications. Previous studies have shown that HTS improves PFC rates, but they included moderately injured patients who would have been closed early no matter what postop fluids they received. The investigators wanted to see how well HTS worked in more severely injured patients.

The study compared 54 adult DCL patients from 2010 to 2011 who received traditional isotonic postop maintenance with 41 from 2013 to 2014 on HTS, both for 72 hours or until fascial closure, whichever came first. The university switched to HTS around 2012 based on earlier studies, allowing for the comparison. Patients in both groups received at least three RBC units during surgery, according to investigator Dr. Lindley Folkerson, a surgery resident at the university.

Twenty-seven HTS patients (66%) were closed at first take-back, versus 33 (61%) in the traditional maintenance group. The median time for closure was 29 hours in the HTS group but 38 hours in traditional maintenance patients (P = .035).

There were no between-group demographic or injury severity differences, but because the university has become more conservative with DCL in recent years, the HTS patients were more hypotensive and had greater baseline fluid deficits at emergency department arrival, and received more blood in the operating room. Even so, HTS patients had significantly lower fluid balances at 24 and 48 hours.

The university hasn’t noticed increased kidney injuries with lower-volume HTS, but that might prove to be a problem in a larger study, Dr. Folkerson said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

A limitation of the study is that patients were resuscitated as their physicians saw fit, so some in the HTS group likely got isotonic fluids. “We did not restrict fluids because they were on the HTS protocol. Crystalloid, colloid, and blood products were given as deemed necessary by the bedside physician,” she said.

The investigators had no disclosures.

[email protected]

SAN ANTONIO – In massively transfused patients undergoing damage control laparotomy, postop hypertonic saline improves primary fascial closure rates at first take-back, according to investigators from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

After controlling for age, injury severity, and resuscitation volumes, primary fascial closure (PFC) at first take-back was almost four times as likely in patients who received hypertonic saline (HTS) after bleeding damage control laparotomy (DCL) instead of traditional isotonic maintenance fluids (odds ratio, 3.82; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-14.31; P = .047).

“In a group of seriously injured bleeding trauma patients undergoing DCL, the use of HTS was associated with a lower fluid balance and a higher rate of PFC at the first take-back,” the investigators concluded.

It’s unclear if the results are because of the hypertonic saline drawing off more edema fluid and making early PFC more likely, or because HTS patients in the study received less fluid than their standard maintenance peers – 30 cc/hr of 3% sodium chloride versus 125 cc/hr of traditional isotonic fluids post op.

PFC at first take-back is known to reduce complications. Previous studies have shown that HTS improves PFC rates, but they included moderately injured patients who would have been closed early no matter what postop fluids they received. The investigators wanted to see how well HTS worked in more severely injured patients.

The study compared 54 adult DCL patients from 2010 to 2011 who received traditional isotonic postop maintenance with 41 from 2013 to 2014 on HTS, both for 72 hours or until fascial closure, whichever came first. The university switched to HTS around 2012 based on earlier studies, allowing for the comparison. Patients in both groups received at least three RBC units during surgery, according to investigator Dr. Lindley Folkerson, a surgery resident at the university.

Twenty-seven HTS patients (66%) were closed at first take-back, versus 33 (61%) in the traditional maintenance group. The median time for closure was 29 hours in the HTS group but 38 hours in traditional maintenance patients (P = .035).

There were no between-group demographic or injury severity differences, but because the university has become more conservative with DCL in recent years, the HTS patients were more hypotensive and had greater baseline fluid deficits at emergency department arrival, and received more blood in the operating room. Even so, HTS patients had significantly lower fluid balances at 24 and 48 hours.

The university hasn’t noticed increased kidney injuries with lower-volume HTS, but that might prove to be a problem in a larger study, Dr. Folkerson said at the annual scientific assembly of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

A limitation of the study is that patients were resuscitated as their physicians saw fit, so some in the HTS group likely got isotonic fluids. “We did not restrict fluids because they were on the HTS protocol. Crystalloid, colloid, and blood products were given as deemed necessary by the bedside physician,” she said.

The investigators had no disclosures.

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