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The total collapse of a multiple-story building immediately kills most of its occupants. In the present study, the few surviving victims were located at the lower floors. The majority of hospitalized victims were outside the building at the moment of the blast. Rapid overcrowding of the emergency department with minor and moderate injuries that do not require hospitalization should be anticipated by disaster management plans. Centralization of severely injured patients in critical areas seems appropriate, because this method keeps major cases from spreading through different wards.

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No abstract

In order to avoid gentamicin toxicity trough serum concentrations when drug monitoring is not available, a correction factor for serum creatinine was calculated and evaluated. In a first group of 35 patients under aminoglycoside treatment with variable serum creatinine (SCr) values, the regression plot of SCr concentrations versus half-life (T_½) values was established: log T_½ = log 2.28 + 1.45 log SCr, r = 0.90, p < 0.01. A second group of 18 patients was treated with doses of 1.0 mg/kg of gentamicin. Dose intervals equivalent to 3 T_½ were daily adjusted. The T_½ was calculated from SCr according to the relationship established for the patients of the first group. All the patients studied maintained trough levels within the therapeutic range.