Evaluating mechanism and severity of injuries among trauma patients admitted to Sina Hospital, the National Trauma Registry of Iran.

PURPOSE: Injuries are one of the leading causes of death and lead to a high social and financial burden. Injury patterns can vary significantly among different age groups and body regions. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between mechanism of injury, patient comorbidities and severity of injuries. METHODS: The study included trauma patients from July 2016 to June 2018, who were admitted to Sina Hospital, Tehran, Iran. The inclusion criteria were all injured patients who had at least one of the following: hospital length of stay more than 24 h, death in hospital, and transfer from the intensive care unit of another hospital. Data collection was performed using the National Trauma Registry of Iran minimum dataset. RESULTS: The most common injury mechanism was road traffic injuries (49.0%), followed by falls (25.5%). The mean age of those who fell was significantly higher in comparison with other mechanisms (p < 0.001). Severe extremity injuries occurred more often in the fall group than in the vehicle collision group (69.0% vs. 43.5%, p < 0.001). Moreover, cases of severe multiple trauma were higher amongst vehicle collisions than injuries caused by falls (27.8% vs. 12.9%, p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Comparing falls with motor vehicle collisions, patients who fell were older and sustained more extremity injuries. Patients injured by motor vehicle collision were more likely to have sustained multiple trauma than those presenting with falls. Recognition of the relationship between mechanisms and consequences of injuries may lead to more effective interventions.

Association of Social Determinants of Health and Road Traffic Deaths: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to review systematically the association of social determinants of health (SDH) and road traffic deaths (RTD) within scientific literature. METHODS: A search strategy was designed and run in EMBASE, PubMed via MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane library. Through title, abstract, and full-text screening, all English original papers (except ecological studies) which studied social determinants of health and fatal injuries were included. Papers which studied association between RTD and the education, income, rural settlement, and marital status were evaluated and the related data was extracted from the full-texts. RESULTS: Eleven articles out of 7,897 primary results were selected to be included in the study. Among eight papers studied education, seven confirmed a negative association between years of schooling and RTD. Two out of three articles reported no association between income leveland RTD. Among three papers studied rural settlement, two approved a positive relationship between this determinant and RTD. Both articles studied marital status, confirmed an association between this determinant and RTD. CONCLUSION: A few papers studied association of social determinants of health (SDH) and RTD. There was an inverse relationship between education and RTD. The evidence for such an association between income, rural settlement, and marital state was scarce. Further investigations are recommended through original research.

Vaccination in Hajj: An Overview of the Recent Findings.

BACKGROUND: About two million people annually travel to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. The pilgrims may be at risk of exposure to communicable diseases in this mass gathering and their vaccination against contagious diseases can prevent many morbidities and mortalities. The aim of our study was to review the papers which evaluated effectiveness and compliance of the vaccines applied in Hajj. METHODS: We used PubMed and Scopus to search international medical databases. The key words were as follows: Hajj, Haj, vaccine, vaccination, and immunization. The time interval of the search was from the beginning of 2010 to May 23, 2016. One hundred and thirty papers were extracted, and their contents were subsequently reviewed after title and abstract screenings. The original articles were included in the study and non-English articles were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Considering the extracted papers, almost all pilgrims were vaccinated against meningococcal diseases. Using of influenza and pneumococcal vaccine rates were different among the pilgrims. The other vaccines have been taking according to specific conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The findings regarding influenza vaccine effectiveness are contradictory. A few studies confirmed the flu vaccine effectiveness while some others rejected its usefulness. Meningococcal immunization is an effective preventive tool with high compliance for Hajj pilgrims. Further investigations are recommended for the other vaccines.

Coil Embolization of Intracranial Aneurysms: A Six-Month Follow-Up Study.

BACKGROUND: Rupture of the intracranial aneurysms is associated with a high risk of bleeding and a high incidence of mortality if left untreated. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to report our experience in managing intracranial aneurysms using coil embolization and to report the 6-month follow-up outcome of the patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From January 2010 to December 2012, a series of 90 nonrandomized consecutive patients (mean age: 44.6 ± 14.9 years) with intracranial aneurysms underwent endovascular coil embolization in our center. We excluded patients with dissecting, blood blister-like, or false aneurysms. All patients were evaluated by four-vessel angiography to determine the shape, size, number and location of the aneurysms. We recommended a six-month follow-up control angiography. However, only 38 of them participated in this follow-up imaging. The data were analyzed by chi-square, fisher exact and t-tests and alpha was considered lower than 5%. RESULTS: Immediately after the procedure, the total occlusion was seen in 76 (86.4%), subtotal occlusion in six (6.8%), and partial occlusion in six patients (6.8%). There was no significant relationship between the aneurysm size, aneurysm neck size, and location of the aneurysm with total or subtotal occlusions. Eleven patients (12.5%) experienced some complication during the procedure including two tears, three focal neurological signs, three vision disturbances, and three bleedings in the aneurysm. Major complications were significantly higher in the posterior aneurysm compared to the anterior ones (55.6% versus 44.4% of the major complications; P value = 0.015). Among patients who underwent control angiography, 34 patients (89.4%) had no change, two (5.3%) had new growth and two (5.3%) had widening of the neck after 6 months follow-up. Although aneurysms that remained unchanged after six months follow-up angiography had total occlusion after the procedure, it was 50% for aneurysms that had any changes in 6 months follow-up angiography (P value = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Coil embolization showed successful outcomes in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms with a low complication rate.

Comparison of endovascular coiling and surgical clipping for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms: A prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Management of intracranial aneurysms has made debates about the best treatment modality in recent years. The aim of this study was to compare the interventional outcomes between two groups of patients, one treated with endovascular coiling and the other treated with surgical clipping. METHODS: This prospective study included 48 patients with intracranial aneurysms who underwent endovascular coiling (27 patients) or surgical clipping (21 patients) from July 2011 to August 2013. A neurologist examined patients in admission and followed them by phone call 1-year after intervention. RESULTS: Mean modified Rankin Scale (MRS) score at the time of admission in endovascular group was 2.86 ± 0.974 whereas it was 3.81 ± 1.078 in surgical clipping group (P = 0.0040). Focal neurologic signs were higher in clipping during procedures (P = 0.0310). Of 37 patients who followed up for a year, 19 were in endovascular group and 18 in surgical clipping group. At 1 year follow-up, MRS improvement was statistically significant in coiling group (P = 0.0090), but not in clipping group (P = 0.8750). Mean difference of MRS score at the time of admission and at one year later, was 0.947 ± 1.224 in endovascular group and 0.111 ± 2.083 in surgical group (P = 0.3000). CONCLUSION: There was no statistically significant difference at 1 year outcome between two groups. We recommend further interventional studies with larger sample sizes for better evaluation of the modalities.