INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that all blunt trauma patients, presenting with a Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score of 15, without intoxication or neurological deficit, and no pain or tenderness on log-roll can have any thoracolumbar fracture excluded without imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS All patients diagnosed with a thoracolumbar fracture presenting to the emerge...

BACKGROUND Trauma in pediatric patients is a major cause of death. This study investigated differences between decedents and survivors. Furthermore, an analysis of preventable and potential preventable trauma deaths was conducted and errors in the acute trauma care were investigated. METHODS All patients aged less than 16 years with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 16 upon primary admission t...

In thoracolumbar spinal fractures with posterior column injury for applying proper management, it is important to distinguish a flexion-distraction injury (FDI) from a three column burst fracture (BF) as in clinical examination, both may have a similar significant tenderness on direct spinal palpation. Careful attention to the comprehensive clinical examination and detailed imaging features are...

BACKGROUND The "gold standard" for instrumentation of unstable thoracolumbar fracture-dislocations is pedicle screw and rod fixation. Although traditional treatment supports long-segment posterior fixation (LSPF), more recent studies show short-segment posterior fixation (SSPF) may be effective, but incur higher failure rates. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of SSPF in the management of un...

The objective of this study was to determine if alcohol potentiates the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in motor vehicle crash (MVC) victims, controlling for crash severity characteristics. Prior studies evaluating effects of alcohol on TBI have not accounted for severity of crash. We evaluated severity of head injury by Marshall score [a classification scale of intracranial pathology ...

BACKGROUND Aboriginal Canadians are considered to be at increased risk of major trauma. However, population-based studies characterizing the distribution, determinants and outcomes of major trauma in this group are lacking. We sought to measure the impact of ethnicity, as reflected by Aboriginal status, on the incidence of severe trauma and to broadly define the epidemiologic characteristics of...

OBJECTIVES The present retrospective study was performed to determine the incidence and outcome of primary blast injury and to identify possible changes over the course of the conflicts between 2003 and 2006. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA Combat physicians treating patients injured in overseas contingency operations observed an increase in the severity of explosion injuries occurring during this pe...

BACKGROUND In this study, we compared the anatomical, and physiological scoring systems trauma revised injury severity score (TRISS), revised trauma score (RTS), injury severity score (ISS), new injury severity score (NISS) to each other, to find out the most accurate and reliable trauma score for the risk classification of morbidity and mortality among the trauma patients. METHODS This is a ...

background: the clinical course of multiple sclerosis (ms) evolves over many years. its prognosis is highly variable among affected individuals, i.e. while some suffer from early severe disabilities, others remain ambulatory and functional for many years. we used multiple sclerosis severity score (msss) and the new classification for ms severity herbert et al. introduced in 2006 according to ms...