Survival after an airplane disaster is rare. We describe the injuries of survivors of an airplane accident and present a common mechanism of trauma for victims. Descriptive data were gathered by interviews with patients, physical examination. Review of charts and patients X-ray films. Informations regarding the flight characteristics were obtained from Iran air safety board. All dead patients were clinically examined by legal medicine department. The suggested mechanism of trauma was established according to present knowledge of mechanism of fractures. From 105 passengers, 27 survived. There was no mortality during hospital course. Between dead passengers, lower extremity fractures were the most common followed by chest wall fractures. Among the survivors, neurosurgical help was needed only in one case for shunt application. Brain concussions and effusions and one hematoma managed conservatively. Two laparotomies were performed for one splenectomy and two hepatoraphy. One pelvic fracture and two femur fractures were occurred. Tibia fractures were the most common (17) followed by spine (14) fractures. Ten tibial fractures were open, and 15 were in distal third. All tibia fractures were fixed with IM locking nails or locking plates. Eight posterior instrumentations were applied for seven burst and two fracture-dislocations. In this landing accident, a combination of vertical loading along with deceleration force produced burst fractures of spine and distal leg fractures.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury is one of the major concerns of global public health, because it is the main cause of morbidity and mortality between young people. This study aimed to investigate the possible association between the parameters of arterial blood gas (ABG) and outcome of patients with severe head trauma.

Some studies have shown that catecholamines and the changes in their levels during and after head trauma can be useful in predicting the outcome in head trauma patients. The goal of this study is to search for a probable relation between urine levels of catecholamines and prognosis in patients with severe head trauma. Fifty four patients with severe head trauma Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS < or = 8) on admission time were recruited in Imam Reza Hospital within one. These patients were included when having no major accompanying trauma in other organs. Twenty four hour urine was collected after admission and levels of metanephrine and nor-metanephrine were measured. The relation between urine levels of these metabolites with final outcome and also with GCS at admission, 24, 48 h and 1 week after admission and discharge time and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) were studied. Fifty two patients, 48 males and 4 females with a mean age of 32.3 +/- 14.7 (3-72) years were included. The main underlying etiologies were motorcycle (46.2%) and car accidents (25%). Diffuse axonal injury, brain contusion and subdural hematoma were three main diagnoses (28.8, 17.3 and 15.4% of the cases, respectively). 19 (36.5%) of the patients expired within the study period. The mean level of metanephrine and normetanephrine in urine were 207.9 +/- 200.5 and 330.2 +/- 218.4 microg in 24 h, respectively. There was no meaningful relation between urine levels of these metabolites and any of GCS and GOS. There was also no meaningful relation between these parameters and final prognosis in patients.