• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.266-272
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• 2013

Purpose: Although the duodenum and the pancreas are protected by surrounding organs and have a low probability of injury during trauma, the mortality and the morbidity due to complications is high. This report includes the pancreaticoduodenal injuries we observed that were treated at a single institute. Methods: The medical records of patients admitted to our institute between 2001 and 2012 for pancreaticoduodenal injury were retrospectively reviewed. Results: In our hospital, between 2001 and 2012, 15 patients were admitted for a pancreaticoduodenal injury. All patients experienced blunt trauma, 6 of whom were involved in traffic accidents and 9 of whom received injuries from physical assault. Most of the patients were men(13 of 15 patients, 86%) with a mean age of 23 years (range, 5?39 years). All patients were admitted to the emergency center and managed by the surgeons on duty. The mean value of the injury severity score was 22. The mortality rate was 6%(1 of 15 patients). Seven of the fourteen surviving patients(50%) had duodenal injury, 6 patients(42%) had a pancreatic injury, and 1 patient(7%) had a combined pancreaticoduodenal injury. The surgical procedures were targeted at damage control. Conclusion: In conclusion, we believe that damage control surgery is the optimal management for a pancreaticoduodenal injury.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.128-135
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• 2008

Purpose: As the care of surgical patients becomes increasingly complex and catheter-based techniques are more frequently applied, the pattern of iatrogenic vascular injuries may be increasing. Major vascular injuries can jeopardize a patient's life or limb survival. The purpose of this study was to examine the current etiology and prognosis for iatrogenic vascular injuries. Methods: We reviewed medical records of 29 cases of iatrogenic vascular injury that were treated Seoul National University Bundang Hospital between October 2003 and October 2008. We studied clinical variables including demographics, cause of injury, clinical presentations, management and prognosis. Results: The mean age was 60.8 years (range: 25-86), and the male to female ratio was 1.9 : 1. The causes of injuries were operation related complication in 18 cases (62.1%), endovascular intervention and diagnostic angiography in 11 cases (37.9%). The types of vascular injury were partial severance in 14 cases, pseudoaneurysm in 8, arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in 3, thrombosis in 2, complete severance in 2. Especially, device related complication including percutaneous closing device were occurred in 9 and the others came from inadvertent physician's procedure. Primary repair were done in 12 cases, end-to-end anastomosis in 5, interposition graft in 4, ligation in 2, patch angioplasty in 1, peudoaneurysm excision and arteriorrhaphy in 1, hematoma evacuation in 1, and endovascular repair in 3. There were 2 cases of mortality, one of them due to hemorrhagic shock and the other due to septic shock. Conclusion: Proper selection of treatment modalities should be important to have better outcome according to the type of injury as well as anatomical location. Each physician should be familiar to new device as well as patient's topographical feature. Immediate referral to vascular specialist is also essential to reduce morbidity.

• Neurospine
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.348-352
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• 2018

Objective: Postoperative dynamic cryo-compression (DC) therapy has been proposed as a method of reducing pain and the inflammatory response in the early postoperative period after orthopedic joint reconstruction surgery. Our aim was to analyze the analgesic efficacy of DC therapy after adult lumbar spinal surgery. Methods: DC was applied for 30 minutes every 6 hours after surgery. Pain was measured by a visual analogue scale (VAS) in the preoperative period, immediately after surgery, and every 6 hours postoperatively for the first 72 hours of the hospital stay. Patients' pain medication requirements were monitored using the patient-controlled analgesia system and patient charts. Twenty patients who received DC therapy were compared to 20 historical controls who were matched for demographic and surgical variables. Results: In the postanesthesia care unit, the mean VAS back pain score was $5.87{\pm}0.9$ in the DC group and $6.95{\pm}1.0$ (p=0.001) in the control group. The corresponding mean VAS scores for the DC vs. control groups were $3.8{\pm}1.1$ vs. $5.4{\pm}0.7$ (p < 0.001) at 6 hours postoperatively, and $2.7{\pm}0.7$ vs. $6.25{\pm}0.9$ (p<0.001) at discharge, respectively. The cumulative mean analgesic consumption of paracetamol, tenoxicam, and tramadol in the DC group vs. control group was $3,733.3{\pm}562.7mg$ vs. $4,633.3{\pm}693.5mg$ (p<0.005), $53.3{\pm}19.5mg$ vs. $85.3{\pm}33.4mg$ (p<0.005), and $63.3{\pm}83.4mg$ vs. $393.3{\pm}79.9mg$ (p<0.0001), respectively. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated a positive association between the use of DC therapy and accelerated improvement in patients during early rehabilitation after adult spine surgery compared to patients who were treated with painkillers only.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.107-110
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• 2019

Bilateral chylothorax due to blunt trauma is extremely rare. We report a 74-year-old patient that developed delayed bilateral chylothorax after falling off a ladder. The patient had a simple 12th rib fracture and T12 lamina fracture. All other findings seemed normal. He was sent home and on the 5th day visited our emergency center at Halla Hospital with symptoms of dyspnea and lower back pain. Computer tomography of his chest presented massive fluid collection in his right pleural cavity and moderate amounts in his left pleural cavity with 12th rib fracture and T11-12 intervertebral space widening with bilateral facet fractures. Chest tubes were placed bilaterally and chylothorax through both chest tubes was discovered. Conservative treatment for 2 weeks failed, and thus, thoracic duct ligation was done by video assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Thoracic duct embolization was not an option. Postoperatively, the patient is now doing well and happy with the results. Early surgical treatment must be considered in the old patient, whom large amounts of chylothorax are present.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2019

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine which factors contribute to the surgical treatment outcomes of acetabular fractures. Simultaneously, we aim to report on the treatment results after our hospital was designated as the focused training center for trauma. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of all patients who experienced acetabular fractures from January 1, 2014 to May 1, 2017 and visited our hospital. Patients who had associated pelvic ring fractures or were lost to the one-year follow-up were excluded; a total of 37 fractures were evaluated. We evaluated the clinical results using the scoring system of Merle $d^{\prime}Aubign\acute{e}$ (MDA) and grade of Brooker for heterotopic ossification. Results: Thirty-seven patients (31 men and 6 women) were identified. The mean injury severity score (ISS) was 8.7, with 32.4% of patients having a score >15. The average blood transfusion in the first 24 hours was 0.54 pints. Falling was the most common injury mechanism (32.4%). Chest injury was the most common associated injury (16.2%), followed by head injury (13.5%). The posterior wall and both column fracture were the most common (37.8%) fracture patterns. Excellent and good clinical grades of MDA included 28 patients (75.6%) and fair and poor grades included nine (24.3%), respectively. Four patients were diagnosed with a post-operative infection (10.8%); one out of four patients who had co-morbidity died (2.7%), and another patient underwent a replacement surgery (2.7%). Multivariate analysis showed that age and operation time were associated with MDA. In addition, operation time and ISS were significant co-factors of the Brooker grade. Conclusions: Korea University Guro Hospital showed similar treatment results of acetabular fractures compared to other publications. The age and operation time were co-factors of the clinical outcome of this fracture. Additionally, increased operation time and injury severity score were suggested to increase the Brooker grade.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2019

Purpose: We perform an analysis of infection risk factors for fracture patients and confirm that the risk factors reported in previous studies increase the risk of actual infection among fractured patients. In addition, injury severity score (ISS) which is used as an evaluation tool for morbidity of trauma patients, confirms whether there is a relationship with infection after orthopedic fracture surgery. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 1,818 patients who underwent fixation surgery at orthopedic trauma team, focused trauma center from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017. Thirty-five patients were infected after fracture surgery. We analyzed age, sex, open fracture criteria based on Gustilo-Aderson classification 3b, anatomical location (upper extremity or lower extremity) of fracture, diabetes, smoking, ISS. Results: Of 1,818 patients, 35 (1.9%) were diagnosed with postoperative infection. Of the 35 infected patients, nine (25.7%) were female and five (14.0%) were upper extremity fractures. Three (8.6%) were diagnosed with diabetes and eight (22.8%) were smokers. Thirteen (37.1%) had ISS less than nine points and six (17.1%) had ISS 15 points or more. Of 1,818 patients, 80 had open fractures. Surgical site infection were diagnosed in 12 (15.0%) of 80. And nine of 12 were checked with Gustilo-Aderson classification 3b or more. Linear logistic regression analysis was performed using statistical analysis program Stata 15 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). In addition, independent variables were logistic regression analyzed individually after Propensity scores matching. In all statistical analyzes, only open fracture was identified as a risk factor. Conclusions: The risk factors for infection in fracture patients were found to be significantly influenced by open fracture rather than the underlying disease or anatomical feature of the patient. In the case of ISS, it is considered that there is a limitation. It is necessary to develop a new scoring system that can appropriately approach the morbidity of fracture trauma patients.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.151-158
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• 2018

Purpose: The regional emergency medical centers manage the patients with major blunt trauma according to the process appropriate to each hospital rather than standardized protocol of the major trauma centers. The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and influence on prognosis of additional cervical-thoracic-lumbar-spine computed tomography (CTL-spine CT) scan in diagnosis of spinal injury from the victim of major blunt trauma with impaired consciousness. Methods: The study included patients visited the urban emergency medical center with major blunt trauma who were over 18 years of age from January 2013 to December 2016. Data were collected from retrospective review of medical records. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were measured for evaluation of the performance of diagnostic methods. Results: One hundred patients with Glasgow coma scale ${\leq}13$ underwent additional CTL-spine CT scan. Mechanism of injury was in the following order: driver, pedestrian traffic accident, fall and passenger accident. Thirty-one patients were diagnosed of spinal injury, six of them underwent surgical management. The sensitivity of chest, abdomen and pelvis CT (CAP CT) was 72%, specificity 97%, false positive rate 3%, false negative rate 28% and diagnostic accuracy 87%. Eleven patients were not diagnosed of spinal injury with CAP CT and C-spine lateral view, but all of them were diagnosed of stable fractures. Conclusions: C-spine CT scan be actively considered in the initial examination process. When CAP CT scan is performed in major blunt trauma patients with impaired consciousness, CTL-spine CT scan or simple spinal radiography has no significant effect on the prognosis of the patient and can be performed if necessary.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2021

Purpose: This study investigated the clinical outcomes of trauma patients with blunt thoracic aortic injuries at a single institution. Methods: During the study period, 9,501 patients with traumatic aortic injuries presented to Trauma Center of Gil Medical Center. Among them, 1,594 patients had severe trauma, with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) of >15. Demographics, physiological data, injury mechanism, hemodynamic parameters associated with the thoracic injury according to chest computed tomography (CT) findings, the timing of the intervention, and clinical outcomes were reviewed. Results: Twenty-eight patients had blunt aortic injuries (75% male, mean age, 45.9±16.3 years). The majority (82.1%, n=23/28) of these patients were involved in traffic accidents. The median ISS was 35.0 (interquartile range 21.0-41.0). The injuries were found in the ascending aorta (n=1, 3.6%) aortic arch (n=8, 28.6%) aortic isthmus (n=18, 64.3%), and descending aorta (n=1, 3.6%). The severity of aortic injuries on chest CT was categorized as intramural hematoma (n=1, 3.6%), dissection (n=3, 10.7%), transection (n=9, 32.2%), pseudoaneurysm (n=12, 42.8%), and rupture (n=3, 10.7%). Endovascular repair was performed in 71.4% of patients (45% within 24 hours), and two patients received surgical management. The mortality rate was 25% (n=7). Conclusions: Traumatic thoracic aortic injuries are life-threatening. In our experience, however, if there is no rupture and extravasation from an aortic injury, resuscitation and stabilization of vital signs are more important than an intervention for an aortic injury in patients with multiple traumas. Further study is required to optimize the timing of the intervention and explore management strategies for blunt thoracic aortic injuries in severe trauma patients needing resuscitation.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2021

Purpose: The aim of this study was to elucidate the prognosis, and other clinical features, such as time to surgery and the amount of transfusion, of small bowel injury (SBI) accompanied by liver injury (LI). Methods: We investigated 221 patients with SBI who visited an emergency center from October 2000 to March 2019. We excluded patients with injuries that directly led to mortality, and the remaining 149 patients were divided into the SBI alone (SBI-A) group and the SBI accompanied by LI (SBI-LI) group. Data were collected for preoperative and surgical outcome variables, and the treatment results were compared between groups. Results: The SBI-LI group had a higher mortality rate than the SBI-A group (22.4% vs. 14.3%), but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.061). There were no significant differences between the SBI-A and SBI-LI groups, except for the amount of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion (SBI-A: 3.53±0.1 vs. SBI-LI: 8.38±0.7 packs, p=0.035) and the length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay (SBI-A: 6.7±0.2 vs. SBI-LI: 11.1±0.5 days, p=0.047). Conclusions: The SBI-LI group required more RBC transfusions and longer ICU stays than the SBI-A group. SBI accompanied by LI may show higher mortality than SBI alone; however, since the difference was not statistically significant in the present study, larger-scale follow-up research is needed.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.242-247
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence and characteristics of associated injuries in patients with spine trauma. Methods: Data of 3,920 consecutive patients admitted to a regional trauma center during a 3-year period were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Of the 3,920 patients who were admitted to the trauma center during the 3-year study period, 389 (9.9%) had major spinal injuries. Among these 389 patients, 303 (77.9%) had associated injuries outside the spine. The most common body region of associated injuries was the extremities or pelvis (194 cases, 49.4%), followed by the chest (154 cases, 39.6%) and face (127 cases, 32.6%). Of these 303 patients, 149 (64%) had associated injuries that required surgical treatment such as laparotomy or internal fixation. Associated injuries were more common in patients with lumbar injuries (93.3%) or multiple spinal injuries (100%) than in those with lower cervical injuries (67.4%). There was a significant correlation between the location of the spinal injury and the body region of the associated injury. However, distant associated injuries were also common. Conclusions: Associated injuries were very common in spinal injury patients. Based on demographic groups, the trauma mechanism, and the location of spinal injury, an associated injury should be suspected until proven otherwise. Using a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to treat trauma victims is of the paramount importance.