Short-term versus long-term trauma mortality: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Trauma is the leading cause of death in the United States for persons under 44 years and the fourth leading cause of death in the elderly. Advancements in clinical care and standardization of treatment protocols have reduced 30-day trauma mortality to less than 4%. However, these improvements do not seem to correlate with long-term outcomes. Some reports have shown a greater than 20% mortality rate when looking at long-term outcomes. The aim of this study was to systematically review the incongruence between short- and long-term mortality for trauma patients. METHODS: For this systematic review, we searched the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Ovid Medline, Google Scholar, and Web of Science database to obtain relevant English, German, French, and Portuguese articles from 1965 to 2018. RESULTS: Trauma patients have decreased long-term survival when compared to the general population and when compared with age-matched cohorts. Postdischarge trauma mortality is significantly higher (mean, 4.6% at 3-6 months, 15.8% at 2-3 years, 26.3% at 5-25 years) compared with controls (mean, 1.3%, 2.2%, and 15.6%, respectively). Patient comorbidities likely contribute to long-term trauma deaths. Trauma patients discharged to a skilled nursing facility have worse mortality compared with those discharged either to home or a rehabilitation center. In contrast to data available which illustrate that short-term mortality has improved, quality of evidence was not sufficient to determine if any improvements in long-term trauma mortality outcomes have also occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The decreased short-term mortality observed in trauma patients does not appear correlated with decreased long-term mortality. The extent to which increased long-term trauma mortality is related to the initial traumatic insult-versus rising population age and comorbidity burden as well as suboptimal discharge location-requires further study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Systematic Review, level IV.

The use of laparoscopic ultrasound in difficult cholecystectomy cases significantly decreases morbidity.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS) is a method of intraoperative bile duct imaging that can be used prior to any potentially hazardous dissection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether LUS could permit safe laparoscopic completion of difficult cholecystectomy (LC) cases and to assess whether its use had any impact on clinical outcome. METHODS: We identified prospectively 44 patients with severe cholecystitis in whom LUS was considered critical for intraoperative identification of the bile ducts. LC patients were compared, on an intention to treat basis, with 41 contemporaneous patients with severe cholecystitis who had planned open cholecystectomy (OC). RESULTS: LUS identified the extrahepatic bile ducts in all cases. Of the cases, 40 (91%) were completed laparoscopically. OC patients had a higher rate of acute cholecystitis and preoperative percutaneous cholecystostomy tubes and a higher mean ASA classification. Intraoperatively, LC patients had significantly less estimated blood loss and fewer drains were placed. Postoperatively, LC patients had significantly fewer total complications, Clavien-Dindo grade 3 complications, biliary complications, biliary reinterventions, intra-abdominal abscesses, and bleeding complications. LC patients had significantly fewer ICU admissions and shorter LOS. CONCLUSION: By allowing identification of the extrahepatic bile ducts during difficult cholecystectomy, LUS results in a high rate of successful laparoscopic completions. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is associated with better clinical outcomes than OC for patients with severe cholecystitis.