Acute traumatic coagulopathy decreased actual survival rate when compared with predicted survival rate in severe trauma.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether acute traumatic coagulopathy (ATC) should be combined with the trauma and injury severity score (TRISS) to predict outcome in severe trauma patients and investigate effects of the change in coagulation state during early resuscitation on the actual survival rate. METHODS: This was a retrospective study. Significant variables that affected 28-day mortality were analysed using multivariate logistic regression. Study patients were classified into three groups: no coagulopathy, mild coagulopathy or severe coagulopathy. Concordance between actual and predicted survival rates were compared for each group. The predicted survival rate was calculated using the TRISS method. The study also determined whether changes in the coagulation state during inhospital resuscitation affected the relationship between actual and predicted survival in patients who had rechecked coagulation profile within 12 h after presentation. RESULTS: Data from a total of 336 patients were analysed. At presentation, 20.8% of the study patients had mild coagulopathy, whereas 7.7% had severe coagulopathy. Age, injury severity score, revised trauma score and presence of ATC at presentation were independently associated with 28-day mortality. Actual survival was significantly lower than predicted survival in the mild and severe coagulopathy groups. Aggravation of coagulation state from normal or mild to severe coagulopathy or persistent severe coagulopathy during inhospital resuscitation mainly contributed to the discrepancy between actual and predicted survival. CONCLUSIONS: ATC decreased actual survival more than expected. ATC should be combined with TRISS to predict trauma outcome in severely injured patients. Improvement in coagulopathy during resuscitation may reduce the incidence of preventable death after trauma.

Successful extracorporeal life support in cardiac arrest with recurrent ventricular fibrillation unresponsive to standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Extracorporeal life support has been used as an extension of conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, the appropriate indications for extracorporeal CPR (ECPR) including the duration of CPR are unknown. We present a case of a male, 37-year-old out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patient who received prolonged CPR followed by ECPR. Despite advanced cardiac life support, he did not regain a sustained spontaneous circulation and had recurrent ventricular fibrillation (VF) during the prolonged CPR. VF was unresponsive to CPR, defibrillation, adrenaline (epinephrine), and antiarrhythmics. The CPR time before ECPR was approximately 2h. During extracorporeal life support, the VF did not recur and percutaneous coronary angioplasty was achieved. Ultimately, the patient was discharged without neurological complications. Although cardiac arrest occurred out-of-hospital and CPR was performed for a long time, a patient might be a candidate for ECPR if perfusing rhythms are restored transiently but not successfully maintained due to recurrent VF. ECPR may be used for VF unresponsive to standard CPR techniques.