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Abstract Background and Objectives Trauma patients' characteristics and prehospital medical systems differ between countries. We aimed to establish a simple field triage scheme for identifying severe injury patients that reflect the regional features of trauma demographics and trauma management systems. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study using the Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB). The main outcome was all‐cause in‐hospital mortality. Blunt trauma patients ≥18 years of age were enrolled. Thirty‐five parameters (including demographic characteristics, mechanism of injury, vital signs, and abbreviated injury scale 98) were assessed for each patient using a machine learning method. After calculating the feature importance of each variable from the JTDB 2019–2021 dataset, we selected variables and made schemes by including different combinations of variables. The schemes were analyzed using a receiver operating characteristic curve and validated using the JTDB 2004–2018 dataset. Results We analyzed 48,194 subjects in JTDB 2019–2021. Eight variables were selected and schemes calculated and evaluated using 185,728 cases in the JTDB 2004–2018 dataset. The area under the curve of the most accurate and simplest scheme was 0.845. When the cut‐off value was set at 6, the mortality rate of the positive group (i.e., score ≥6) was 31.8%, the undertriage rate was 4.6%, and the overtriage rate was 68.2%. Conclusions We established an easy and reliable field triage scheme suited to the Japanese trauma system which comprised disturbance of consciousness, respiratory failure, shock, head injury, chest injury, multiple injury, fall from height, and age.

Abstract Background The efficacies of fresh frozen plasma and coagulation factor transfusion have been widely evaluated in trauma-induced coagulopathy management during the acute post-injury phase. However, the efficacy of red blood cell transfusion has not been adequately investigated in patients with severe trauma, and the optimal hemoglobin target level during the acute post-injury and resuscitation phases remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether a restrictive transfusion strategy was clinically non-inferior to a liberal transfusion strategy during the acute post-injury phase. Methods This cluster-randomized, crossover, non-inferiority multicenter trial was conducted at 22 tertiary emergency medical institutions in Japan and included adult patients with severe trauma at risk of major bleeding. The institutions were allocated a restrictive or liberal transfusion strategy (target hemoglobin levels: 7–9 or 10–12 g/dL, respectively). The strategies were applied to patients immediately after arrival at the emergency department. The primary outcome was 28-day survival after arrival at the emergency department. Secondary outcomes included transfusion volume, complication rates, and event-free days. The non-inferiority margin was set at 3%. Results The 28-day survival rates of patients in the restrictive (n = 216) and liberal (n = 195) strategy groups were 92.1% and 91.3%, respectively. The adjusted odds ratio for 28-day survival in the restrictive versus liberal strategy group was 1.02 (95% confidence interval: 0.49–2.13). Significant non-inferiority was not observed. Transfusion volumes and hemoglobin levels were lower in the restrictive strategy group than in the liberal strategy group. No between-group differences were noted in complication rates or event-free days. Conclusions Although non-inferiority of the restrictive versus liberal transfusion strategy for 28-day survival was not statistically significant, the mortality and complication rates were similar between the groups. The restrictive transfusion strategy results in a lower transfusion volume. Trial registration number: umin.ac.jp/ctr: UMIN000034405, registration date: 8 October 2018.

Abstract Aim Prescription drug and over‐the‐counter (OTC) drug overdose is a major problem in emergency departments in Japan, and some need advanced care which is more than observation. We aimed to identify the prehospital risk factors for the need of advanced care among overdose patients. Methods This was a single‐center retrospective cohort study. We included overdoses patients of prescription drugs or OTC drugs, who admitted to our hospital between 2016 and 2021. We grouped them into advanced care and non‐advanced care. The main outcome was the need for advanced care. We performed a multiple logistic regression analysis, calculated the PAV score (Paracetamol use, Alcohol use, abnormal Vital signs on scene) and performed a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results There were 229 subjects. The logistic regression analysis revealed that alcohol, paracetamol, and the abnormal vital signs on scene were associated with advanced care (alcohol‐odds ratio [OR]: 2.95; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29–6.75; paracetamol‐OR: 5.47; 95% CI: 2.18–13.71; abnormal vital signs‐OR: 4.61, 95% CI: 2.07–10.27). The rate of advanced care in the high PAV score (2 and 3) group was statistically higher than that in the low PAV score (0–1) group (p = 0.04). Area under the ROC curve of the PAV score was 0.72 (95% CI, 0.65–0.80). Conclusion Alcohol, paracetamol use and abnormal vital signs on scene might be risk factors for advanced care among prescription drugs or OTC drugs overdose patients, and the PAV score may predict the need for advanced care.

Abstract Background Only a few studies have reported the association between age and mortality in COVID-19 patients who require invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). We aimed to evaluate the effect of age on COVID-19-related mortality among patients undergoing IMV therapy. Methods This cohort study was conducted using the COVID-19 Registry Japan database, a nationwide multi-centre study of hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Of all 33,808 cases registered between 1 January 2020 to 28 February 2021, we analysed 1555 patients who had undergone IMV. We evaluated mortality rates between age groups using multivariable regression analysis after adjusting for known potential components, such as within-hospital clustering, comorbidities, steroid use, medication for COVID-19, and vital signs on admission, using generalized estimation equation. Results By age group, the mortality rates in the IMV group were 8.6%, 20.7%, 34.9%, 49.7% and 83.3% for patients in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, respectively. Multivariable analysis showed that compared with those for patients aged

Abstract Background The management of cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) has changed drastically in the last decades, and surgery is the primary treatment. However, the optimum timing of early surgical treatment (within 24 h or 72 h after injury) is still controversial. We sought to determine the optimum timing of surgery for cervical SCI, comparing the length of the intensive care unit (ICU) stay and in-hospital mortality in patients who underwent surgical treatments (decompression and stabilization) for cervical SCI within 24 h after injury and within 7 days after injury. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study using Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB) which is a nationwide, multicenter database. We selected adult isolated cervical SCI patients who underwent operative management within 7 days after injury, between 2004 and 2015. The main outcome measures were the length of ICU stay and in-hospital mortality. We grouped the patients into two, based on the time from onset of injury to surgery, an early group (within 24 h) and a late group (from 25 h to 7 days). Next, we performed multivariable analyses for analyzing the relevance between the timing of surgery and the length of ICU stay after adjusting for baseline characteristics using propensity score. We also performed the Cox survival analyses to evaluate in-hospital mortality. Results From 236,698 trauma patients registered in JTDB, we analyzed 514 patients. The early group comprised 291 patients (56.6%), and the late group comprised 223 (43.4%). The length of ICU stay did not differ between the two groups (early, 10 days; late, 11 days; p = 0.29). There was no significant difference for length of ICU stay between the early and late group even after adjustment by multivariate analysis (p = 0.64). There was no significant difference in in-hospital mortality between the two groups (the early group 3.8%, the late group 2.2%, p = 0.32), and no significant difference was found in the Cox survival analysis. Conclusions Our study showed that neither the length of ICU stay nor in-hospital mortality after spinal column stabilization or spinal cord decompression for cervical SCI significantly differed according to the timing of surgery between 24 h and 7 days.

External iliac artery (EIA) injuries caused by blunt trauma are rare. Here, we describe a blunt EIA injury after a motorbike accident suffered by a 16-year-old male. Despite conservative treatment, intermittent claudication persisted. He was successfully treated by elective endovascular stent-graft implantation on day 59 after the injury. Ankle-brachial index (ABI) improved, as did his symptoms. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan on postoperative day 90 showed no residual stenosis and favorable peripheral blood flow. This report suggests that elective endovascular stent-graft implantation might be a viable treatment option for blunt EIA injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]