No abstract

Profiles of combat injuries worldwide have shown that penetrating trauma is one of the most common injuries sustained during battle. This is usually accompanied by severe bleeding or hemorrhage. If the soldier does not bleed to death, he may eventually succumb to complications arising from trauma hemorrhagic shock (THS). THS occurs when there is a deficiency of oxygen reaching the organs due to excessive blood loss. It can trigger massive metabolic derangements and an overwhelming inflammatory response, which can subsequently lead to the failure of organs and possibly death. A better understanding of the acute metabolic changes occurring after THS can help in the development of interventional strategies, as well as lead to the identification of potential biomarkers for rapid diagnosis of hemorrhagic shock and organ failure. In this preliminary study, a metabolomic approach using the complementary platforms of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to determine the metabolic changes occurring in a porcine model of combat trauma injury comprising of penetrating trauma to a limb with hemorrhagic shock. Several metabolites associated with the acute-phase reaction, inflammation, energy depletion, oxidative stress, and possible renal dysfunction were identified to be significantly changed after a thirty-minute shock period.

No abstract

No abstract

Objective: We aimed to investigate whether early tracheal intubation (TI) is associated with a reduced risk of mortality and increased ventilator-free days (VFD). Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of children 0 to 18 years old in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), between 2008 and 2017. Patient demographics, vital signs, and laboratory findings were extracted. Using a time-dependent propensity score-matched algorithm, each patient was matched with another equally likely to be intubated within the same hour but was actually intubated with ≤2 hours, 2 to 4 hours, and 4 to 6 hours delays. Outcomes were mortality and VFD. Results: Among 333 patients, the median age was 1.72 years (interquartile range [IQR] 0.17-7.75). Thirty children died (9.0%) and the median PICU length of stay was 6.7 days (IQR 3.9-13.2). Early TI did not decrease mortality significantly when compared to a ≤2 hour delay (odds ratios [OR] 0.86; 95% CI, 0.40-1.85), a 2 to 4 hour delay (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.39-1.69), or a 4 to 6 hour delay (OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.43-1.79). Similarly, early TI did not significantly increase VFD. Patients with early TI had 0.09 more VFD (95% CI −1.83 to 2.01) when compared to a delay within 2 hours, 0.23 more VFD (95% CI −1.66 to 2.13) when compared to a 2 to 4-hour delay and 0.56 more VFD (95% CI −1.49-2.61) when compared to a 4 to 6-hour delay. Conclusions: We did not find a significant association between the timing of TI and mortality or VFD in critically ill children.