[Differences in the outcome of seriously injured children depending on treatment level]. / Unterschiede im Outcome schwerverletzter Kinder in Abhängigkeit von der Versorgungsstufe.

INTRODUCTION: Many publications, mainly from other countries, suggest that the treatment of seriously injured children might be better in specialised paediatric trauma centres than in general trauma centres. Data from Germany are not available yet, but those from abroad were used for the recommendations made by the German Association for Trauma Surgery (DGU) on the topic of paediatric trauma in the "White Paper on Trauma Care". The goal of this study was to analyse whether the outcome of severely injured children is dependent on treatment level and on the availability of a paediatric surgeon based on the given data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from the "TraumaRegister DGU" between 2002 and 2012 were used. Children aged 1-15 years treated during the period 2002-2012 were included. Severity had to reach a minimum Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 9 and the treatment had to involve a stay at an Intensive Care Unit. Patients with an ISS ≥9 who died were also included to take into consideration children with particularly severe injuries. RESULTS: Hospitals without a paediatric surgeon transferred the patients significantly more frequently (p < 0.001). Mean hospital stay was shorter in centres with a paediatric surgeon, with slightly longer median stays at an Intensive Care Unit. Hospitals without a paediatric surgeon performed slightly more frequent surgical interventions on injured children (barely significant at p = 0.045). The death rate and the calculated Revised Injury Severity Classification (RISC) II prognosis were the same with or without the presence of a paediatric surgeon. No difference was found in the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) between the group with and the group without involvement of a paediatric surgeon. DISCUSSION: Overall, the medical care of seriously injured and polytraumatised children in Germany is good at all levels of treatment whether a paediatric surgeon is involved or not.

Age- and gender-related characteristics of the pubic symphysis and triradiate cartilage in pediatric computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: There is little information on the pubic symphysis' normal CT appearance in children. OBJECTIVE: We sought to generate age-, gender- and maturity-related symphyseal width appearances in CT scans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pelvic CT scans performed for any reason during a 6-year period in patients younger than 18 years were retrospectively analyzed. The symphysis width was measured in the axial plane and the triradiate cartilage was classified as open or closed. RESULTS: Four hundred twenty-seven CT scans were evaluated and 350 remained for analysis. Age- and gender-related measurements of the symphysis width are illustrated on various centile graphs. When grouping children by age in years 0-6, 7-11, 12-15 and 16-17, mean (standard deviation) symphysis width was 5.4 mm (0.9), 5.3 mm (1.1), 4.1 mm (1.1) and 3.5 mm (1.0), respectively, in girls and 5.9 mm (1.3), 5.4 mm (1.2), 5.2 mm (1.1) and 4.0 mm (1.0), respectively, in boys. Boys and girls were significantly different in the age groups 12-15 years (P<0.001) and 16-17 years (P=0.04). In the mature pelvis, the symphyseal gap is significantly (P<0.001) shorter in both genders, and in girls compared to boys (P=0.04). CONCLUSION: The pubic symphysis width in children differs according to age, gender and maturity. The reference values published herein may help detect symphyseal injury.

Emergency radiological examination of the externally stabilized pelvis--there is a catch to it: lessons learned from two cases with symphyseal disruption despite initial inconspicuous computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: Preclinical and early clinical external pelvic stabilization using commercially available devices has become common in trauma patient care. Thus, in the emergency department an increasing number of patients will undergo radiographic evaluation of the externally stabilized pelvis to exclude injuries. While reports exist where injuries to the pelvis were elusive to radiological examination due to the pelvic immobilization we elaborate on an algorithm to remove an external pelvic stabilizing device, prevent delayed diagnosis of pelvic disruption and thus increase patient safety. CASE PRESENTATION: We report on two patients with external pelvic stabilization presenting with an inconspicuous pubic symphysis on initial pelvic computed tomography scans. The first patient was an otherwise healthy 51-year old male being run over by his own car. He received external pelvic stabilization in the emergency department. The second patient was a 36-year old male falling from a ladder. In this patient external pelvic stabilization was performed at the scene. In the first patient no pelvic injury was obvious on computed tomography. In the second patient pelvic fractures were diagnosed, yet the presentation of the pubic symphysis appeared normal. Nevertheless, complete symphyseal disruption was diagnosed in both of them upon removal of the external pelvic stabilization and consequently required internal fixation. CONCLUSION: Based on our experience we propose an algorithm to "clear the initially immobilized pelvis" in an effort to minimize the risk of missing a serious pelvic injury and increase patient safety. This is of significant importance to orthopedic trauma surgeons and emergency physicians taking care of injured patients.

Open fixation of acute anterior glenoid rim fractures with bioresorbable pins: analysis of clinical and radiological outcome.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was a detailed analysis of clinical and radiological results following open fixation of acute-traumatic, displaced anterior glenoid rim fractures with bioresorbable pins. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 17 patients with glenoid defect sizes ≥20 %, as directly measured in preoperative sagittal en face CT. The mean glenoid defect size was 25.3 % (20-35, SD 4.7). Two or three polylactid pins were used for fixation. Mean age of patients at the time of surgery was 50.1 years (27-71). The mean follow-up period was 6.2 years (2.0-11.1). Follow-up included comprehensive objective and subjective evaluation of shoulder function as well as standard radiographs. RESULTS: The majority of 15/17 patients obtained good or excellent clinical results according to the absolute and normalized Constant score, the Rowe score, the Oxford shoulder score, the simple shoulder test, the shoulder pain and disability index and the subjective shoulder value. Quality of life (SF-36) showed reference values. Mean or subitem values of all outcome measures did not differ from the contralateral, uninjured side. Radiographically, all fractures healed without secondary dislocation. Radiological signs of glenohumeral arthritis developed in two patients and progressed in two other patients. There were no implant-related complications. No patient experienced glenohumeral instability or had to undergo revision surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Bioresorbable pin fixation is a feasible and safe method of osteosynthesis for anterior glenoid rim fractures up to a glenoid defect size of about 35 % and enables immediate active range of motion. Good or excellent clinical outcome can be expected and glenohumeral stability is reliably restored. The most common mid- and long-term complication is occurrence or progression of osteoarthritis. The major benefits of bioresorbable pin fixation are redundancy of implant removal, minimal risk of implant-related complications and early functional rehabilitation.

A deep learning approach for projection and body-side classification in musculoskeletal radiographs.

BACKGROUND: The growing prevalence of musculoskeletal diseases increases radiologic workload, highlighting the need for optimized workflow management and automated metadata classification systems. We developed a large-scale, well-characterized dataset of musculoskeletal radiographs and trained deep learning neural networks to classify radiographic projection and body side. METHODS: In this IRB-approved retrospective single-center study, a dataset of musculoskeletal radiographs from 2011 to 2019 was retrieved and manually labeled for one of 45 possible radiographic projections and the depicted body side. Two classification networks were trained for the respective tasks using the Xception architecture with a custom network top and pretrained weights. Performance was evaluated on a hold-out test sample, and gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) heatmaps were computed to visualize the influential image regions for network predictions. RESULTS: A total of 13,098 studies comprising 23,663 radiographs were included with a patient-level dataset split, resulting in 19,183 training, 2,145 validation, and 2,335 test images. Focusing on paired body regions, training for side detection included 16,319 radiographs (13,284 training, 1,443 validation, and 1,592 test images). The models achieved an overall accuracy of 0.975 for projection and 0.976 for body-side classification on the respective hold-out test sample. Errors were primarily observed in projections with seamless anatomical transitions or non-orthograde adjustment techniques. CONCLUSIONS: The deep learning neural networks demonstrated excellent performance in classifying radiographic projection and body side across a wide range of musculoskeletal radiographs. These networks have the potential to serve as presorting algorithms, optimizing radiologic workflow and enhancing patient care. RELEVANCE STATEMENT: The developed networks excel at classifying musculoskeletal radiographs, providing valuable tools for research data extraction, standardized image sorting, and minimizing misclassifications in artificial intelligence systems, ultimately enhancing radiology workflow efficiency and patient care. KEY POINTS: • A large-scale, well-characterized dataset was developed, covering a broad spectrum of musculoskeletal radiographs. • Deep learning neural networks achieved high accuracy in classifying radiographic projection and body side. • Grad-CAM heatmaps provided insight into network decisions, contributing to their interpretability and trustworthiness. • The trained models can help optimize radiologic workflow and manage large amounts of data.

Multiclass datasets expand neural network utility: an example on ankle radiographs.

PURPOSE: Artificial intelligence in computer vision has been increasingly adapted in clinical application since the implementation of neural networks, potentially providing incremental information beyond the mere detection of pathology. As its algorithmic approach propagates input variation, neural networks could be used to identify and evaluate relevant image features. In this study, we introduce a basic dataset structure and demonstrate a pertaining use case. METHODS: A multidimensional classification of ankle x-rays (n = 1493) rating a variety of features including fracture certainty was used to confirm its usability for separating input variations. We trained a customized neural network on the task of fracture detection using a state-of-the-art preprocessing and training protocol. By grouping the radiographs into subsets according to their image features, the influence of selected features on model performance was evaluated via selective training. RESULTS: The models trained on our dataset outperformed most comparable models of current literature with an ROC AUC of 0.943. Excluding ankle x-rays with signs of surgery improved fracture classification performance (AUC 0.955), while limiting the training set to only healthy ankles with and without fracture had no consistent effect. CONCLUSION: Using multiclass datasets and comparing model performance, we were able to demonstrate signs of surgery as a confounding factor, which, following elimination, improved our model. Also eliminating pathologies other than fracture in contrast had no effect on model performance, suggesting a beneficial influence of feature variability for robust model training. Thus, multiclass datasets allow for evaluation of distinct image features, deepening our understanding of pathology imaging.

Predicting tracheostomy in multiple injured patients with severe thoracic injury (AIS ≥ 3) with the new T3P-Score: a multivariable regression prediction analysis.

Multiple trauma patients with severe chest trauma are at increased risk for tracheostomy. While the risk factors associated with the need for tracheostomy are well established in the general critical care population, they have not yet been validated in a cohort of patients suffering severe thoracic trauma. This retrospective cohort study analysed data on patients aged 18 years or older who were admitted to one of the six participating academic level I trauma centres with multiple injuries, including severe thoracic trauma (AISThorax ≥ 3) between 2010 and 2014. A multivariable binary regression was used to identify predictor variables for tracheostomy and to develop the Tracheostomy in Thoracic Trauma Prediction Score (T3P-Score). The study included 1019 adult thoracic trauma patients, of whom 165 underwent tracheostomy during their intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Prehospital endotracheal intubation (adjusted OR [AOR]: 2.494, 95% CI [1.412; 4.405]), diagnosis of pneumonia during the ICU stay (AOR: 4.374, 95% CI [2.503; 7.642]), duration of mechanical ventilation (AOR: 1.008/hours of intubation, 95% CI [1.006; 1.009]), and an AISHead ≥ 3 (AOR 1.840, 95% CI [1.039; 3.261]) were independent risk factors for tracheostomy. Patients with sepsis had a lower risk of tracheostomy than patients without sepsis (AOR 0.486, 95% CI [0.253; 0.935]). The T3P-Score had high predictive validity for tracheostomy (ROCAUC = 0.938, 95% CI [0.920, 0.956]; Nagelkerke's R2 was 0.601). The T3P-Score's specificity was 0.68, and the sensitivity was 0.96. The severity of thoracic trauma did not predict the need for tracheostomy. Follow-up studies should validate the T3P-Score in external data sets and study the reasons for the reluctant use of tracheostomy in patients with severe thoracic trauma and subsequent sepsis.Trial registration: The study was applied for and registered a priori with the respective ethics committees.

Survival and neurologic outcome after traumatic out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest in a pediatric and adult population: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: This systematic review is focused on the in-hospital mortality and neurological outcome of survivors after prehospital resuscitation following trauma. Data were analyzed for adults/pediatric patients and for blunt/penetrating trauma. METHODS: A systematic review was performed using the data available in Ovid Medline. 476 articles from 1/1964 - 5/2011 were identified by two independent investigators and 47 studies fulfilled the requirements (admission to hospital after prehospital resuscitation following trauma). Neurological outcome was evaluated using the Glasgow outcome scale. RESULTS: 34 studies/5391 patients with a potentially mixed population (no information was found in most studies if and how many children were included) and 13 paediatric studies/1243 children (age ≤ 18 years) were investigated. The overall mortality was 92.8% (mixed population: 238 survivors, lethality 96.7%; paediatric group: 237 survivors, lethality 86.4% = p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Children have a higher chance of survival after resuscitation of an out-of-hospital traumatic cardiac arrest compared to adults but tend to have a poorer neurological outcome at discharge.

Trauma patients with SARS-CoV-2 in German ICUs during the 2nd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PURPOSE: In January and February 2021, about 4000 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive patients were treated daily in German intensive care units (ICUs). The number of SARS-CoV-2-positive ICU patients with trauma, however, is not known and neither whether the trauma itself or COVID-19 causes the critical illness. METHODS: A total of 173 German ICUs, representing 3068 ICU beds, participated in a survey developed by the Trauma Section of the German Interdisciplinary Association of Intensive Care Medicine (DIVI). RESULTS: Participating ICUs reported an overall 1-day prevalence of 20 and an overall 7-day prevalence of 35 SARS-CoV-2-positive trauma patients in the ICU. Critical illness was triggered by trauma alone in 50% of cases and by the combination of trauma and COVID-19 in 49% of cases; 70% of patients were older than 65 years and suffered from a single injury, predominantly proximal femur fractures. The distribution of patients was comparable regarding the level of care of the trauma centre (local, regional, and supra-regional). CONCLUSION: The proportion of trauma patients of all SARS-CoV-2-positive critically ill patients is small (~ 1%) but relevant. There is no concentration of these patients at Level 1 trauma centres. However, the traumatic insult is the most relevant cause for ICU treatment in most of these patients. Regarding a new wave of the pandemic, adequate trauma dedicated resources and perioperative structures and expertise have to be provided for COVID-19 trauma patients.

Influence of arm positioning on radiation dose for whole body computed tomography in trauma patients.

BACKGROUND: Multislice whole body computed tomography is regarded as the method of choice for primary investigation of hemodynamically stable patients with multiple injuries. However, a disadvantage of this method is the high level of radiation to which the patient is exposed. Various recommendations on how to position the patient's arms during whole body computed tomography have been given in the literature, but conclusive data are missing. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between different arm positions and radiation dose in patients undergoing whole body computed tomography. METHODS: In a retrospective analysis of available data derived from former whole body computed tomography screening of patients with multiple injuries, we calculated the effective radiation dose and scanning time for different arm positions (both arms up, both arms at sides, right arm up, and left arm up). Statistical analysis was performed using the independent t test with 95% confidence intervals. Statistical significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The data evaluated had been recorded for 956 patients during a period of 18 months. Of these patients, 710 were included in the study. In 487 cases (68%), both arms were up; in 82 cases (12%), down by the sides; in 90 cases (13%), the right arm was up; and in 44 cases (6%), the left arm was up. Overall, the radiation dose was statistically significantly higher with both arms at sides (24.69 mSv ± 6.91 mSv) than with both arms up (19.18 mSv ± 4.99 mSv; p < 0.0000001). Statistically significant differences in effective radiation dose were not found for either the right arm up (23.52 mSv ± 5.23 mSv; p = 0.211) or the left arm up (22.53 mSv ± 5.4 mSv; p = 0.076) compared with both arms down at sides. Comparison of scan lengths for the thorax or abdomen did not yield any significant differences between arms down and any other arm position. Analysis of scanning times did not reveal any significant differences for whole body computed tomography with both arms down (07:31 minutes ± 02:53 minutes) compared with both arms up (07:30 minutes ± 02:04 minutes; p = 0.94), right arm up (07:15 minutes ± 01:43 minutes; p = 0.582), or left arm up (07:18 minutes ± 01:24 minutes; p = 0.707). CONCLUSION: Based on our retrospective investigation, it can be recommended with reference to whole body computed tomography screening that the arms should be in the arms-up position during thorax or abdomen scanning of a severely injured patient, provided there are no clear clinical indications of shoulder injury. For the patient, this position is associated with a significantly reduced radiation dose without noticeable loss of time.

Thromboembolic complications among multiple injured patients with pelvic injuries: identifying risk factors for possible patient-tailored prophylaxis.

BACKGROUND: Patients with pelvic and/or acetabular fractures are at high risk of developing thromboembolic (TE) complications. In our study we investigate TE complications and the potential negative effects of concomitant pelvic or acetabular injuries in multiple injured patients according to pelvic/acetabular injury severity and fracture classification. METHODS: The TraumaRegister DGU® was analyzed between 2010 and 2019. Multiple injured patients with pelvic and/or acetabular fractures with ISS ≥ 16 suffering from TE complications were identified. We conducted a univariate and multivariate analysis with TE events as independent variable to examine potential risk factors and contributing factors. RESULTS: 10.634 patients met our inclusion criteria. The overall TE incidence was 4.9%. Independent risk factors for the development of TE complications were sepsis, ≥ 10 operative interventions, mass transfusion (≥ 10 PRBCs), age ≥ 65 years and AISAbdomen ≥ 3 (all p < 0.001). No correlation was found for overall injury severity (ISS), moderate traumatic brain injury, additional injury to lower extremities, type B and C pelvic fracture according to Tile/AO/OTA and closed or open acetabular fracture. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple injured patients suffering from pelvic and/or acetabular fractures are at high risk of developing thromboembolic complications. Independent risk factors for the development of thromboembolic events in our study cohort were age ≥ 65 years, mass transfusion, AISAbdomen ≥ 3, sepsis and ≥ 10 surgery procedures. Among multiple injured patients with acetabular or pelvic injuries the severity of these injuries seems to have no further impact on thromboembolic risk. Our study, however, highlights the major impact of early hemorrhage and septic complications on thromboembolic risk in severely injured trauma patients. This may lead to individualized screening examinations and a patient-tailored thromboprophylaxis in high-risk patients for TE. Furthermore, the number of surgical interventions should be minimized in these patients to reduce thromboembolic risk.

Influence of surgical stabilization of clavicle fractures in multiply-injured patients with thoracic trauma.

Thoracic trauma has decisive influence on the outcome of multiply-injured patients and is often associated with clavicle fractures. The affected patients are prone to lung dysfunction and multiple organ failure. A multi-center, retrospective analysis of patient records documented in the TraumaRegister DGU was performed to assess the influence of surgical stabilization of clavicle fractures in patients with thoracic trauma. A total of 3,209 patients were included in the analysis. In 1362 patients (42%) the clavicle fracture was treated operatively after 7.1 ± 5.3 days. Surgically treated patients had a significant reduction in lung failure (p = 0.013, OR = 0.74), multiple organ failure (p = 0.001, OR = 0.64), intubation time (p = 0.004; -1.81 days) and length of hospital stay (p = 0.014; -1.51 days) compared to non-operative treatment. Moreover, surgical fixation of the clavicle within five days following hospital admission significantly reduced the rates of lung failure (p = 0.01, OR = 0.62), multiple organ failure (p = 0.01, OR = 0.59) and length of hospital stay (p = 0.01; -2.1 days). Based on our results, multiply-injured patients with thoracic trauma and concomitant clavicle fracture may benefit significantly from surgical stabilization of a clavicle fracture, especially when surgery is performed within the first five days after hospital admission.

Possible advantages of early stabilization of spinal fractures in multiply injured patients with leading thoracic trauma - analysis based on the TraumaRegister DGU®.

BACKGROUND: Major trauma often comprises fractures of the thoracolumbar spine and these are often accompanied by relevant thoracic trauma. Major complications can be ascribed to substantial simultaneous trauma to the chest and concomitant immobilization due to spinal instability, pain or neurological dysfunction, impairing the respiratory system individually and together. Thus, we proposed that an early stabilization of thoracolumbar spine fractures will result in significant benefits regarding respiratory organ function, multiple organ failure and length of ICU / hospital stay. METHODS: Patients documented in the TraumaRegister DGU®, aged ≥16 years, ISS ≥ 16, AISThorax ≥ 3 with a concomitant thoracic and / or lumbar spine injury severity (AISSpine) ≥ 3 were analyzed. Penetrating injuries and severe injuries to head, abdomen or extremities (AIS ≥ 3) led to patient exclusion. Groups with fractures of the lumbar (LS) or thoracic spine (TS) were formed according to the severity of spinal trauma (AISspine): AISLS = 3, AISLS = 4-5, AISTS = 3 and AISTS = 4-5, respectively. RESULTS: 1740 patients remained for analysis, with 1338 (76.9%) undergoing spinal surgery within their hospital stay. 976 (72.9%) had spine surgery within the first 72 h, 362 (27.1%) later on. Patients with injuries to the thoracic spine (AISTS = 3) or lumbar spine (AISLS = 3) significantly benefit from early surgical intervention concerning ventilation time (AISLS = 3 only), ARDS, multiple organ failure, sepsis rate (AISTS = 3 only), length of stay in the intensive care unit and length of hospital stay. In multiple injured patients with at least severe thoracic spine trauma (AISTS ≥ 4) early surgery showed a significantly shorter ventilation time, decreased sepsis rate as well as shorter time spend in the ICU and in hospital. CONCLUSIONS: Multiply injured patients with at least serious thoracic trauma (AISThorax ≥ 3) and accompanying spine trauma can significantly benefit from early spine stabilization within the first 72 h after hospital admission. Based on the presented data, primary spine surgery within 72 h for fracture stabilization in multiply injured patients with leading thoracic trauma, especially in patients suffering from fractures of the thoracic spine, seems to be beneficial.

Pneumonia in severely injured patients with thoracic trauma: results of a retrospective observational multi-centre study.

BACKGROUND: While the incidence and aspects of pneumonia in ICU patients has been extensively discussed in the literature, studies on the occurrence of pneumonia in severely injured patients are rare. The aim of the present study is to elucidate factors associated with the occurrence of pneumonia in severely injured patients with thoracic trauma. SETTING: Level-I University Trauma Centres associated with the TraumaRegister DGU®. METHODS: A total of 1162 severely injured adult patients with thoracic trauma documented in the TraumaRegister DGU® (TR-DGU) were included in this study. Demographic data, injury severity, duration of mechanical ventilation (MV), duration of ICU stay, occurrence of pneumonia, bronchoalveolar lavage, aspiration, pathogen details, and incidences of mortality were evaluated. Statistical evaluation was performed using SPSS (Version 25.0, SPSS, Inc.) software. RESULTS: The overall incidence of pneumonia was 27.5%. Compared to patients without pneumonia, patients with pneumonia had sustained more severe injuries (mean ISS: 32.6 vs. 25.4), were older (mean age: 51.3 vs. 47.5) and spent longer periods under MV (mean: 368.9 h vs. 114.9 h). Age, sex (male), aspiration, and duration of MV were all independent predictors for pneumonia occurrence in a multivariate analysis. The cut-off point for duration of MV that best discriminated between patients who would and would not develop pneumonia during their hospital stay was 102 h. The extent of thoracic trauma (AISthorax), ISS, and presence of pulmonary comorbidities did not show significant associations to pneumonia incidence in our multivariate analysis. No significant difference in mortality between patients with and without pneumonia was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Likelihood of pneumonia increases with age, aspiration, and duration of MV. These parameters were not found to be associated with differences in outcomes between patients with and without pneumonia. Future studies should focus on independent parameters to more clearly identify severely injured subgroups with a high risk of developing pneumonia. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II - Retrospective medical record review.

Thoracic trauma severity contributes to differences in intensive care therapy and mortality of severely injured patients: analysis based on the TraumaRegister DGU®.

BACKGROUND: Thoracic trauma is a relevant source of comorbidity throughout multiply-injured patient care. We aim to determine a measurable influence of chest trauma's severity on early resuscitation, intensive care therapy, and mortality in severely injured patients. METHODS: Patients documented between 2002 and 2012 in the TraumaRegister DGU®, aged ≥ 16 years, injury severity score (ISS) ≥ 16 are analyzed. Isolated brain injury and severe head injury led to exclusion. Subgroups are formed using the Abbreviated Injury ScaleThorax. RESULTS: Twenty-two thousand five hundred sixty-five patients were predominantly male (74%) with mean age of 45.7 years (SD 19.3), blunt trauma (95%), mean ISS 25.6 (SD 9.6). Overall mean intubation period was 5.6 days (SD 10.7). Surviving patients were discharged from the ICU after a mean of about 5 days following extubation. Thoracic trauma severity (AISThorax ≥ 4) and fractures to the thoracic cage significantly prolonged the ventilation period. Additionally, fractures extended the ICU stay significantly. Suffering from more than one thoracic injury was associated with a mean of 1-2 days longer intubation period and longer ICU stay. Highest rates of sepsis, respiratory, and multiple organ failure occurred in patients with critical compared to lesser thoracic trauma severity. CONCLUSION: Thoracic trauma severity in multiply-injured patients has a measurable impact on rates of respiratory and multiple organ failure, sepsis, mortality, time of mechanical ventilation, and ICU stay.

Radiological evaluation of the posterior pelvic ring in paediatric patients: Results of a retrospective study developing age- and gender-related non-osseous baseline characteristics in paediatric pelvic computed tomography - References for suspected sacroiliac joint injury.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of paediatric pelvic injury is low, yet they are often indicative of accompanying injuries, and an instable pelvis at presentation is related to long-term poor outcome. Judging diastasis of the sacroiliac joint in paediatric pelvic computed tomography is challenging, as information on their normal appearance is scarce. We therefore sought to generate age- and gender-related standard width measurements of the sacroiliac joint in children for comparison. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 427 pelvic computed tomography scans in paediatric patients (<18 years old) were retrospectively evaluated. After applying exclusion criteria, 350 scans remained for measurements. Taking a standard approach we measured the sacroiliac joint width bilaterally in axial and coronal planes. RESULTS: We illustrate age- and gender-related measurements of the sacroiliac joint width as a designated continuous 3rd, 15th, 50th, 85th and 97th centile graph, respectively. Means and standard deviations in the joint width are reported for four age groups. There are distinct changes in the sacroiliac joint's appearance during growth. In general, male children exhibit broader sacroiliac joints than females at the same age, although this difference is significant only in the 11 to 15-year-old age group. CONCLUSION: The sacroiliac joint width in children as measured in coronal and axial CT scans differs in association with age and gender. When the sacroiliac joint width is broader than the 97th centile published in our study, we strongly encourage considering a sacroiliac joint injury.

Possibly preventable cardiac arrest in a morbidly obese patient - a comment on the 2015 ERC guidelines.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of overweight and obesity has been steadily on the rise and has reached epidemic proportions in various countries and this represents a well-known major health problem. Nevertheless, current guidelines for resuscitation do not include special sequences of action in this subset of patients. The aim of this letter is to bring this controversy into focus and to suggest alterations of the known standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the obese. CASE PRESENTATION: An obese patient weighing 272 kg fell to the floor, afterwards being unable to get up again. Thus, emergency services were called for assistance. There were no signs or symptoms signifying that the person had been harmed in consequence of the fall. Only when brought into a supine position the patient suffered an immediate cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed but there was no return of a stable spontaneous circulation until the patient was brought into a full lateral position. In spite of immediate emergency care the patient ultimately suffered a lethal hypoxic brain damage. CONCLUSION: A full lateral position should be considered in obese patients having a cardiac arrest as it might help to re-establish stable circulatory conditions.

Outcome and risk factors in children after traumatic cardiac arrest and successful resuscitation.

INTRODUCTION: Prospective collected data of the TraumaRegister DGU(®) were analyzed to derive survival rates and predictors for non-survival in the children who had suffered traumatic cardiorespiratory arrest. Different time points of resuscitation efforts (only preclinical, in the emergency room (ER) or preclinical+ER) were analyzed in terms of mortality and neurological outcome. METHODS: The database of the TraumaRegister DGU(®) comprising 122,742 patients from 1993 to 2013 was analyzed. The main focus of this survey was on the paediatric group defined by an age ≤ 14 years who could be compared to adults. Different statistical analysis (univariate and multivariate analysis, logistic regression) were performed with mortality as the target variable. Differences between the paedatric group and adults were analysed by Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Data after preclinical and/or ER resuscitation from 152 children and 1690 adults were analyzed. A good or moderate outcome (GOS 5+4) was found in 19.4% of the children's group compared to 12.4% of the adults (p=0.02). Analysis of the GOS 5+4 subgroups after preclinical resuscitation only revealed that these outcomes were achieved by 19.4% of the paediatric group and 13.2% of the adults (p=0.24), after ER-only resuscitation by 37.0% of the children and 19.6% of the adults (p=0.046), and after preclinical and ER resuscitation by only 10.9% of the children compared to 2.5% of the adults (p=0.006). Taking only survivors into account, 84.8% of the children and 62% of the adults had a GOS 4+5. The highest risk for mortality in the logistic regression model was associated with preclinical intubation, followed by GCS 3, blood transfusion and severe head injury with AIS ≥3 and ISS. CONCLUSIONS: CPR in children after severe trauma seems to yield a better outcome than in adults, and appears to be more justified than the current guidelines would imply. Resuscitation in the ER is associated with better neurological outcomes compared with resuscitation in a preclinical context or in both the preclinical phase and the ER. Our children's outcomes seem to be better than those in most of the earlier studies, and the data presented might support algorithms in the future especially for paediatric resuscitation.

Dose reduction does not affect detection of bone marrow lesions with dual-energy CT virtual noncalcium technique.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate if a dose-reduced, dose-neutral dual-energy computed tomographic (CT) virtual noncalcium technique can equally detect posttraumatic bone marrow lesions (BMLs) of the knee. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty patients underwent DE CT imaging with either a standard dose (group A) or a dose equal to that of a single-energy CT scan (group B) (28% dose reduction) and magnetic resonance imaging for knee trauma workup. Calcium was virtually subtracted from the images. Two radiologists rated the presence of abnormal soft tissue-like attenuation in the bone marrow in a total of 12 femoral and tibial regions and performed Hounsfield unit measurements thereafter. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis was used for four-point rating scores and Hounsfield unit measurements. Fractures were classified. RESULTS: Magnetic resonance imaging depicted 170 BMLs (35 femoral, 135 tibial). Mean age, number of fractures, attenuation values and number of regions with BMLs were not significantly different between the groups. Visual rating revealed overall areas under the curves of 0.983 and 0.979 for observers 1 and 2, respectively. Visual judgment was superior to attenuation measurements for femoral regions regardless of the dose applied. Analysis of variance of all CT values revealed a significant influence for the presence of edema (P < .001) but no differences for the radiation dose used (P = .424). Interobserver agreement was excellent (κ = 0.944). CONCLUSIONS: Dose reduction does not affect the detectability of posttraumatic BMLs with a dual-energy CT virtual noncalcium technique, thereby providing potential additional information compared with single-energy CT imaging without additional radiation dose.