STUDY DESIGN A retrospective study was undertaken that evaluated the medical records and imaging studies of a subset of patients with spinal injury from large level I trauma centers. OBJECTIVE To characterize patients with spinal injuries who had neurologic deterioration due to unrecognized instability. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Controversy exists regarding the most appropriate imaging stu...

The purpose of this study was to establish if injuries sustained during a player’s career in baseball had consequences later in life following retirement from participation. Seventy-five retired Australian baseball players (mean age 55.8 ±11.4 years) completed a survey to establish the long-term consequences of major (i.e. those resulting in five or more consecutive weeks of training or playing...

INTRODUCTION We wanted to compare 3 existing emergency medical services (EMS) immobilization protocols: the Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS, mechanism-based); the Domeier protocol (parallels the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study [NEXUS] criteria); and the Hankins' criteria (immobilization for patients <12 or >65 years, those with altered consciousness, focal neurologic d...

INTRODUCTION Damage control surgery and damage control resuscitation have reduced mortality in patients with severe abdominal injuries. The shift towards non-operative management in haemodynamically stable patients suffering blunt abdominal trauma has further contributed to the improved results. However, in many countries, low volume of trauma cases and limited exposure to trauma laparotomies c...

Bowel injury (BI) is a complication of open and laparoscopic abdominal surgery associated with increased morbidity and mortality. If BI is missed at the time it occurs, it can have devastating consequences. Electrosurgery is used extensively in laparoscopic surgery and can cause thermal injuries that are harder to detect than mechanical injuries and may evolve over time. The medical literature ...

Foot injuries are common in athletes. Injuries to the midfoot and, particularly, the Lisfranc joint are less common, but they have a high risk of ending the athlete's season or even career. Lisfranc injuries can be difficult to diagnose, and they often lead to a disastrous outcome when missed. Weight-bearing radiographs of the foot are recommended to confirm the diagnosis, although advanced ima...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the management of pediatric trauma and the efficacy of the Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS) in classifying injury severity and predicting prognosis. DESIGN A retrospective case series. SETTING The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, a major pediatric trauma centre. PATIENTS One hundred and forty-nine traumatized children with 2 or more injuries to 1 body system or a s...

Every physician who treats injured patients has a responsibility to detect and appropriately manage thoracolumbar spinal column injuries. Fractures of the thoracolumbar spine are relatively common, so clinicians must give them every consideration both to protect from secondary spinal cord injury and to appreciate the extent of the patient's injuries. Other extraspinal as well as noncontiguous i...

We evaluated prospectively 506 consecutive patients who presented with a history of blunt trauma and hematuria. All patients initially underwent excretory urography and cystography. Of the 506 patients 25 had detectable urinary tract injuries that were confirmed either by the initial studies or by computerized tomography, angiography or direct intraoperative inspection. Diagnoses included 7 ren...

Cervical spine injury occurs in 5-10% of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the consequences of missing significant cervical injuries in unconscious blunt trauma patients are potentially devastating. An adequate cervical spine clearance protocol for unconscious patients must avoid missed injuries, but must also avoid unnecessary cervical immobilisation and the associated morbidity. ...