Prevalence of Trauma-Induced Hypocalcemia in the Prehospital Setting.

BACKGROUND: Recent data published by the Special Operations community suggest the Lethal Triad of Trauma should be changed to the Lethal Diamond, to include coagulopathy, acidosis, hypothermia, and hypocalcemia. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of trauma-induced hypocalcemia in level I and II trauma patients. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at a level I trauma center and Special Operations Combat Medic (SOCM) training site. Adult patients were identified via trauma services registry from September 2021 to April 2022. Patients who received blood products prior to emergency department (ED) arrival were excluded from the study. Ionized calcium levels were utilized in this study. RESULTS: Of the 408 patients screened, 370 were included in the final analysis of this cohort. Hypocalcemia was noted in 189 (51%) patients, with severe hypocalcemia identified in two (<1%) patients. Thirty-two (11.2%) patients had elevated international normalized ratio (INR), 34 (23%) patients had pH <7.36, 21 (8%) patients had elevated lactic acid, and 9 (2.5%) patients had a temperature of <35°C. CONCLUSION: Hypocalcemia was prevalent in half of the trauma patients in this cohort. The administration of a calcium supplement empirically in trauma patients from the prehospital environment and prior to blood transfusion is not recommended until further data prove it beneficial.

Detecting fetal macrosomia with abdominal circumference alone.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if abdominal circumference (AC) can identify macrosomia (> or = 4,000 g) at or beyond 37 weeks. STUDY DESIGN: Prospectively, parturients at term admitted for delivery underwent sonographic mensuration of AC. A receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to determine if AC can differentiate between normal (birth weight < 3,999 g) and macrosomia. A likelihood ratio was calculated. P < .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: The mean gestational age of the 256 subjects was 39.1 +/- 1.5 weeks, and the prevalence of macrosomia was 8.2% (21/256). Inspection of the ROC curve indicated that AC > or = 350 mm can identify macrosomic fetuses. The area under the ROC curve (0.79 +/- 0.04 for macrosomia) was significantly different than the area under the nondiagnostic line (P < .005). The likelihood ratio for AC to detect macrosomia was 2.9 (95% confidence interval, 2.1-4.0). Based on the proportion of macrosomia in our population, we would require over 1,000,000 newborns for a macrosomia analysis to obtain narrow confidence intervals around a clinically useful likelihood ratio. CONCLUSION: Using the guidelines proposed by the Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group, AC is slightly useful in detecting macrosomia among term parturients.