Prehospital Management of Earthquake Casualties Buried Under Rubble

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Abstract

Earthquakes continue to exact a heavy toll on life, injury, and loss of property. Survival of casualties extricated from under the rubble depends upon early medical interventions by emergency teams on site. The objective of this paper is to review the pertinent literature and to analyze the information as a practical guideline for the medical management of casualties accidentally buried alive.

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Immediate versus delayed fluid resuscitation for hypotensive patients with penetrating torso injuries.

W Bickell, M Wall, P Pepe … (1994)

Fluid resuscitation may be detrimental when given before bleeding is controlled in patients with trauma. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of delaying fluid resuscitation until the time of operative intervention in hypotensive patients with penetrating injuries to the torso. We conducted a prospective trial comparing immediate and delayed fluid resuscitation in 598 adults with penetrating torso injuries who presented with a pre-hospital systolic blood pressure of < or = 90 mm Hg. The study setting was a city with a single centralized system of pre-hospital emergency care and a single receiving facility for patients with major trauma. Patients assigned to the immediate-resuscitation group received standard fluid resuscitation before they reached the hospital and in the trauma center, and those assigned to the delayed-resuscitation group received intravenous cannulation but no fluid resuscitation until they reached the operating room. Among the 289 patients who received delayed fluid resuscitation, 203 (70 percent) survived and were discharged from the hospital, as compared with 193 of the 309 patients (62 percent) who received immediate fluid resuscitation (P = 0.04). The mean estimated intraoperative blood loss was similar in the two groups. Among the 238 patients in the delayed-resuscitation group who survived to the postoperative period, 55 (23 percent) had one or more complications (adult respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis syndrome, acute renal failure, coagulopathy, wound infection, and pneumonia), as compared with 69 of the 227 patients (30 percent) in the immediate-resuscitation group (P = 0.08). The duration of hospitalization was shorter in the delayed-resuscitation group. For hypotensive patients with penetrating torso injuries, delay of aggressive fluid resuscitation until operative intervention improves the outcome.

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Treatment of traumatic brain injury with moderate hypothermia.

W Obrist, Louis E Penrod, Timothy M. Palmer … (1997)

Traumatic brain injury initiates several metabolic processes that can exacerbate the injury. There is evidence that hypothermia may limit some of these deleterious metabolic responses. In a randomized, controlled trial, we compared the effects of moderate hypothermia and normothermia in 82 patients with severe closed head injuries (a score of 3 to 7 on the Glasgow Coma Scale). The patients assigned to hypothermia were cooled to 33 degrees C a mean of 10 hours after injury, kept at 32 degrees to 33 degrees C for 24 hours, and then rewarmed. A specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation who was unaware of the treatment assignments evaluated the patients 3, 6, and 12 months later with the use of the Glasgow Outcome Scale. The demographic characteristics and causes and severity of injury were similar in the hypothermia and normothermia groups. At 12 months, 62 percent of the patients in the hypothermia group and 38 percent of those in the normothermia group had good outcomes (moderate, mild, or no disabilities). The adjusted risk ratio for a bad outcome in the hypothermia group was 0.5 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 1.2). Hypothermia did not improve the outcomes in the patients with coma scores of 3 or 4 on admission. Among the patients with scores of 5 to 7, hypothermia was associated with significantly improved outcomes at 3 and 6 months (adjusted risk ratio for a bad outcome, 0.2; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 0.9 at both intervals), although not at 12 months (risk ratio, 0.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 1.0). Treatment with moderate hypothermia for 24 hours in patients with severe traumatic brain injury and coma scores of 5 to 7 on admission hastened neurologic recovery and may have improved the outcome.