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Objectives: There is little evidence guiding the management of grade I-II traumatic splenic injuries with contrast blush (CB). We aimed to analyze the failure rate of nonoperative management (NOM) of grade I-II splenic injuries with CB in hemodynamically stable patients., Methods: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study examining all grade I-II splenic injuries with CB was performed at 21 institutions from January 1, 2014, to October 31, 2019. Patients >18 years old with grade I or II splenic injury due to blunt trauma with CB on CT were included. The primary outcome was the failure of NOM requiring angioembolization/operation. We determined the failure rate of NOM for grade I versus grade II splenic injuries. We then performed bivariate comparisons of patients who failed NOM with those who did not., Results: A total of 145 patients were included. Median Injury Severity Score was 17. The combined rate of failure for grade I-II injuries was 20.0%. There was no statistical difference in failure of NOM between grade I and II injuries with CB (18.2% vs 21.1%, p>0.05). Patients who failed NOM had an increased median hospital length of stay (p=0.024) and increased need for blood transfusion (p=0.004) and massive transfusion (p=0.030). Five patients (3.4%) died and 96 (66.2%) were discharged home, with no differences between those who failed and those who did not fail NOM (both p>0.05)., Conclusion: NOM of grade I-II splenic injuries with CB fails in 20% of patients., Level of Evidence: IV., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Trauma and emergency surgery patients are unique with regard to the sudden and unexpected nature of their hospitalization and this can adversely affect patient satisfaction, but, to our knowledge, no large study exists examining this issue. The purpose of this study was to investigate the major factors that affect satisfaction scores in trauma and emergency surgery patients., Study Design: Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, Hospital Version survey data from patients discharged in 2018-2019 from facilities in a national hospital system were obtained. Patients were categorized as trauma, emergency surgery, or direct admit surgery (elective surgery). Individual Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, Hospital Version question scores were regressed on the score for "overall rating" to determine the primary, secondary, and tertiary satisfaction drivers., Results: There were 186,779 patients from 168 hospitals included. As expected, the primary determinant of patient satisfaction was nursing communication for all groups. However, trauma and emergency surgery patients differed from elective surgery patients in that physician communication was the second most important factor in patient satisfaction, accounting for 12.0% (trauma) and 8.6% (emergency surgery) of the total variability in the overall rating beyond the variability explained by the primary driver. If physician communication received low ratings, it was unlikely that high scores in other metrics could compensate to bring the overall score above the 50th percentile., Conclusions: Acute care surgeons appear to play a uniquely important role in support of Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, Hospital Version scores. These data emphasize the importance of physician communication, particularly when a prehospital physician-patient relationship does not exist. Future research should explore specific mechanisms by which physicians effectively communicate with patients., (Copyright © 2020 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Reports indicate social distancing guidelines and other effects of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted trauma patient volumes and injury patterns. This report is the first analysis of a large trauma network describing the extent of these impacts. The objective of this study was to describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient volumes, demographics, injury characteristics, and outcomes., Methods: For this descriptive, multicenter study from a large, multistate hospital network, data were collected from the system-wide centralized trauma registry and retrospectively reviewed to retrieve patient information including volume, demographics, and outcomes. For comparison, patient data from January through May of 2020 and January through May of 2019 were extracted., Results: A total of 12 395 trauma patients (56% men, 79% white, mean age 59 years) from 85 trauma centers were included. The first 5 months of 2020 revealed a substantial decrease in volume, which began in February and continued into June. Further analysis revealed an absolute decrease of 32.5% in patient volume in April 2020 compared with April 2019 (4997 from 7398; p<0.0001). Motor vehicle collisions decreased 49.7% (628 from 1249). There was a statistically significant increase in injury severity score (9.0 vs. 8.3; p<0.001). As a proportion of the total trauma population, blunt injuries decreased 3.1% (87.3 from 90.5) and penetrating injuries increased 2.7% (10.0 from 7.3; p<0.001). A significant increase was found in the proportion of patients who did not survive to discharge (3.6% vs. 2.8%; p=0.010; absolute decrease: 181 from 207)., Discussion: Early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with a 32.5% decrease in trauma patient volumes and altered injury patterns at 85 trauma centers in a multistate system. This preliminary observational study describes the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and warrants further investigation., Level of Evidence: Level II (therapeutic/care management)., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Many trauma patients present to nontrauma centers with emergency conditions. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act dictates that nontrauma centers attempt stabilization and provide appropriate transfer. Our goal was to determine whether there was a survival benefit in transferring hypotensive patients. The Tampa General Hospital trauma registry database was queried for adult trauma transfers from January 2012 to April 2018 including the first recorded systolic blood pressure (SBP) and other pertinent data. A manual chart review in hypotensive (SBP < 90) patients determined blood pressure at the time of transfer. Of the 3038 patients, 40 patients were hypotensive on arrival, with 40% (16) mortality. Eight of nine (88%) patients with SBP <70 on arrival, 3 of 11 (27%) with SBP 70 to 79, and 5 of 20 (25%) with SBP 80 to 89 died. The only survivor in the <70 group was normotensive at transport. Patients in these groups who were hypotensive at the time of transport died (4/4, 100%). Our data show no benefit in transferring patients with refractory hypotension at the time of transport; although the numbers are small, an SBP <70 should be considered prohibitive to transfer.

Background: The hypothesis of this study is that non-modifiable factors are more important in ventral hernia repair (VHR) surgical site infection (SSI) than care process factors., Methods: All VHR's which were reviewed retrospectively for both NSQIP-recorded data, and also: preoperative hospitalization, existing mesh, enterocutaneous fistula, open wound, case month, case day, case length, prophylactic antibiotics, skin preparation, other procedure performed, re-do operation, estimate blood loss, hernia size, repair approach, repair type, mesh used, skin closure, suture type, use of drains, and dressing., Results: 7% of 223 VHR's had an SSI. Factors associated with SSI: presence of mesh (24% vs. 4%), recurrent VHR (15% vs. 3%), operation time >120 min (15% vs. 3%), hernia size >200 cm 2 (<25 cm 2 2%, 26-200 cm 2 4% and >200 cm 2 11%), and EBL >100 ml (21% vs. 3%). Other factors did not affect SSI rates., Conclusion: Factors associated with a more difficult operation were associated with SSI. Factors considered modifiable played limited roles. This has implications for choices of interventions made to reduce SSI rates., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)