Geriatric trauma patients (GTP) (age ≥ 65 years) with blunt splenic injury (BSI) have up to a 6% failure rate of non-operative management (NOM). GTPs failing NOM have a similar mortality rate compared to GTPs managed successfully with NOM. However, it is unclear if this remains true in octogenarians (aged 80-89 years). We hypothesized that the failure rate for NOM in octogenarians would be similar to their younger geriatric cohort, patients aged 65-79 years; however risk of mortality in octogenarians who fail NOM would be higher than that of octogenarians managed successfully with NOM. The Trauma Quality Improvement Program (2010-2016) was queried for patients with BSI. Those undergoing splenectomy within 6 h were excluded to select for patients undergoing NOM. Patients aged 65-79 years (young GTPs) were compared to octogenarians. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to determine the risk for failed NOM and mortality. From 43,041 BSI patients undergoing NOM, 3660 (8.5%) were aged 65-79 years and 1236 (2.9%) were octogenarians. Both groups had a similar median Injury Severity Score (ISS) (p = 0.10) and failure rate of NOM (6.6% young GTPs vs. 6.8% octogenarians p = 0.82). From those failing NOM, octogenarians had similar units of blood products transfused (p > 0.05) and a higher mortality rate (40.5% vs. 18.2%, p < 0.001), compared to young GTPs. Independent risk factors for failing NOM in octogenarians included ≥ 1 unit of packed red blood cells (PRBC) (p = 0.039) within 24 h of admission. Octogenarians who failed NOM had a higher mortality rate compared to octogenarians managed successfully with NOM (40.5% vs 23.6% p = 0.001), which persisted in a multivariable logistic regression analysis (OR 2.25, CI 1.37-3.70, p < 0.001). Late failure of NOM ≥ 24 h (vs. early failure) was not associated with increased risk of mortality (p = 0.88), but ≥ 1 unit of PRBC transfused had higher risk (OR 1.88, CI 1.20-2.95, p = 0.006). Compared to young GTPs with BSI, octogenarians have a similar rate of failed NOM. Octogenarians with BSI who fail NOM have over a twofold higher risk of mortality compared to those managed successfully with NOM. PRBC transfusion increases risk for mortality. Therefore, clinicians should consider failure of NOM earlier in the octogenarian population to mitigate the risk of increased mortality.

Purpose

Compared to adults, there is a paucity of data regarding the association of a positive alcohol screen (PAS) and outcomes in adolescent patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). We hypothesize adolescent TBI patients with a PAS on admission to have increased mortality compared to patients with a negative alcohol screen.

Methods

The 2017 Trauma Quality Improvement Program database was queried for patients aged 13-17 years presenting with a TBI and serum alcohol screen. Patients with missing information regarding midline shift on imaging and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score were excluded. A multivariable logistic regression analysis for mortality was performed.

Results

From 2553 adolescent TBI patients with an alcohol screen, 220 (8.6%) had a PAS. Median injury severity scores and rates of penetrating trauma (all p > 0.05) were similar between alcohol positive and negative patients. Patients with a PAS had a similar mortality rate (13.2% vs. 12.1%, p = 0.64) compared to patients with a negative screen. Multivariate logistic regression controlling for risk factors associated with mortality revealed a PAS to confer a similar risk of mortality compared to alcohol negative patients (p = 0.40).

Conclusion

Adolescent TBI patients with a PAS had similar associated risk of mortality compared to patients with a negative alcohol screen.

Significance

Over the past decade, machine learning (ML) algorithms have rapidly become much more widespread for numerous biomedical applications, including the diagnosis and categorization of disease and injury.

Aim

Here, we seek to characterize the recent growth of ML techniques that use imaging data to classify burn wound severity and report on the accuracies of different approaches.

Approach

To this end, we present a comprehensive literature review of preclinical and clinical studies using ML techniques to classify the severity of burn wounds.

Results

The majority of these reports used digital color photographs as input data to the classification algorithms, but recently there has been an increasing prevalence of the use of ML approaches using input data from more advanced optical imaging modalities (e.g., multispectral and hyperspectral imaging, optical coherence tomography), in addition to multimodal techniques. The classification accuracy of the different methods is reported; it typically ranges from ∼70% to 90% relative to the current gold standard of clinical judgment.

Conclusions

The field would benefit from systematic analysis of the effects of different input data modalities, training/testing sets, and ML classifiers on the reported accuracy. Despite this current limitation, ML-based algorithms show significant promise for assisting in objectively classifying burn wound severity.

Background

Massive transfusion protocols (MTPs) have become standard of care in the management of bleeding injured patients, yet strategies to guide them vary widely. We conducted a pragmatic, randomized clinical trial (RCT) to test the hypothesis that an MTP goal directed by the viscoelastic assay thrombelastography (TEG) improves survival compared with an MTP guided by conventional coagulation assays (CCA).

Methods

This RCT enrolled injured patients from an academic level-1 trauma center meeting criteria for MTP activation. Upon MTP activation, patients were randomized to be managed either by an MTP goal directed by TEG or by CCA (ie, international normalized ratio, fibrinogen, platelet count). Primary outcome was 28-day survival.

Results

One hundred eleven patients were included in an intent-to-treat analysis (TEG = 56, CCA = 55). Survival in the TEG group was significantly higher than the CCA group (log-rank P = 0.032, Wilcoxon P = 0.027); 20 deaths in the CCA group (36.4%) compared with 11 in the TEG group (19.6%) (P = 0.049). Most deaths occurred within the first 6 hours from arrival (21.8% CCA group vs 7.1% TEG group) (P = 0.032). CCA patients required similar number of red blood cell units as the TEG patients [CCA: 5.0 (2-11), TEG: 4.5 (2-8)] (P = 0.317), but more plasma units [CCA: 2.0 (0-4), TEG: 0.0 (0-3)] (P = 0.022), and more platelets units [CCA: 0.0 (0-1), TEG: 0.0 (0-0)] (P = 0.041) in the first 2 hours of resuscitation.

Conclusions

Utilization of a goal-directed, TEG-guided MTP to resuscitate severely injured patients improves survival compared with an MTP guided by CCA and utilizes less plasma and platelet transfusions during the early phase of resuscitation.