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Screening for blunt cerebrovascular injuries (BCVIs) in asymptomatic high-risk patients has become routine. To date, the length of this asymptomatic period has not been defined. Determining the time to stroke could impact therapy including earlier initiation of antithrombotics in multiply injured patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the time to stroke in patients with a BCVI-related stroke. We hypothesized that the majority of patients suffer stroke between 24 hours and 72 hours after injury.Patients with a BCVI-related stroke from January 2007 to January 2017 from 37 trauma centers were reviewed.During the 10-year study, 492 patients had a BCVI-related stroke; the majority were men (61%), with a median age of 39 years and ISS of 29. Stroke was present at admission in 182 patients (37%) and occurred during an Interventional Radiology procedure in six patients. In the remaining 304 patients, stroke was identified a median of 48 hours after admission: 53 hours in the 144 patients identified by neurologic symptoms and 42 hours in the 160 patients without a neurologic examination and an incidental stroke identified on imaging. Of those patients with neurologic symptoms, 88 (61%) had a stroke within 72 hours, whereas 56 had a stroke after 72 hours; there was a sequential decline in stroke occurrence over the first week. Of the 304 patients who had a stroke after admission, 64 patients (22%) were being treated with antithrombotics when the stroke occurred.The majority of patients suffer BCVI-related stroke in the first 72 hours after injury. Time to stroke can help inform clinicians about initiation of treatment in the multiply injured patient.Prognostic/Epidemiologic, level III.

Traumatized patients are at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and DVT prophylaxis is the standard of care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services classifies DVT as a hospital-acquired condition and can deny payment for treatment of DVT and, in addition, place financial penalties on hospitals with higher than acceptable rates of DVT, unless the DVT was preexisting. We sought to determine the rate of preexisting chronic DVT among symptomatic traumatized inpatients at our ACS-verified Level 1 trauma center.Retrospective review of all traumatized patients admitted for48 hours over a 7-year study period ending December 2016. Patients who had undergone lower extremity duplex ultrasound (LEDUS) were reviewed further to evaluate the results of these tests. Patients were classified as having either no DVT, acute DVT, or chronic (preexisting) DVT based on sonographic characteristics. Incidence, patient demographics, injury severity and outcomes were compared for patients with and without DVT and also for patients with acute and chronic DVT.Five thousand five hundred forty-three patients met inclusion criteria. Of those, 391 (7.0%) had undergone at least one LEDUS for suspicion of DVT. Deep vein thrombosis was diagnosed in 64 (16%) of the patients undergoing LEDUS and thus 1.1% of the entire population had symptomatic DVT diagnosed during admission. Of the 64 patients with DVT, sonographic characteristics classified 56 (87.5%) as "acute." 6 (9%) as "chronic" (preexisting) and 2 (3.5%) as "indeterminate." Among the six patients found to have a preexisting DVT only three (50%) acknowledged a history of DVT.In the absence of routine DVT surveillance almost 10% of traumatized patients diagnosed with DVT likely have chronic preexisting DVT that is unknown to the patient in 50% of cases. This has significant financial implications for hospitals.Epidemiologic/Prognostic, level III.