Thoracic damage control surgery

Final Lifelines: The Implications and Outcomes of Thoracic Damage Control Surgeries

INTRODUCTION

There is a lack of data on the outcomes of thoracic damage control surgery (TDCS). This study aimed to describe the characteristics and outcomes of patients undergoing TDCS.

METHODS

This is a retrospective analysis of the American College of Surgeons-Trauma Quality Improvement Program database (2017-2021). All trauma patients who underwent emergency thoracotomy and packing with temporary closure were included. Patients were stratified based on the age groups (pediatric [<18 y], adults [18-64 y], and older adults [≥65 y]). Our primary outcome measures included 6-h, 24-h, and in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were major complications.

RESULTS

We identified 14,192 thoracotomies, out of which 213 underwent TDCS (pediatric [n = 17], adults [n = 175], and older adults [n = 21]). The mean (SD) age was 37 (18), and 86% were male. The mean shock index was 1.1 (0.4) on presentation with a median [IQR] Glasgow Coma Scale of 4 [3-14], and 22.1% had a prehospital cardiac arrest. The study population was profoundly injured with a median injury severity scoreand chest-abbreviated injury scale of 26 [17-38] and 4 [3-5], respectively, with lung (76.5%) being the most injured intrathoracic organs. Overall, the rates of 6-h, 24-h, and in-hospital mortality were 22.5%, 33%, and 53%, respectively, and 51% developed major complications. There was no significant difference in terms of in-hospital mortality (P = 0.800) and major complications (0.416) among pediatrics, adults, and older adults.

CONCLUSIONS

One in three patients undergoing TDCS die within the first 24 h, and more than half of them develop major complications and die in the hospital, with no difference among pediatric, adults, and older adults. Future efforts should be directed to improve the survival of these severely injured, metabolically depleted, challenging patients.

Treatment of Complex Thoracic and Abdominal Trauma Patients: A Review of Literature and Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Treatment Options

Significance: In trauma care, extensive surgical intervention may be required. Damage control surgery (DCS) is applicable to patients with life or limb-threatening conditions that are incapable of tolerating a traditional surgical approach. Recent Advances: The current resuscitation strategy for complex trauma patients includes limiting crystalloid fluids, balanced mass transfusion protocols, permissive hypotension, and damage control resuscitation. Recent technological advancements in surgical critical care have improved outcomes in these critically ill patients. Critical Issues: DCS, which is often required in patients with trauma injuries, is typically followed by surgical correction of the injury once the immediate patient survival procedures have been completed. However, DCS and the subsequent injury repair procedures have a high risk for postsurgical complication development. Future Directions: Negative pressure therapy modalities can offer clinicians additional adjunctive and cost-effective tools for the management of the trauma care patient, as these systems can be utilized during both the DCS and the postoperative injury management phases of trauma care.

Evaluating the Shock Index, Revised Assessment of Bleeding and Transfusion (RABT), Assessment of Blood Consumption (ABC) and novel PTTrauma score to predict critical transfusion threshold (CAT) in penetrating thoracic trauma

The shock index (SI) has been associated with predicting transfusion needs in trauma patients. However, its utility in penetrating thoracic trauma (PTTrauma) for predicting the Critical Administration Threshold (CAT) has not been well-studied. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of SI in predicting CAT in PTTrauma patients and compare its performance with the Assessment of Blood Consumption (ABC) and Revised Assessment of Bleeding and Transfusion (RABT) scores. We conducted a prognostic type 2, single-center retrospective observational cohort study on patients with PTTrauma and an Injury Severity Score (ISS) > 9. The primary exposure was SI at admission, and the primary outcome was CAT. Logistic regression and decision curve analysis were used to assess the predictive performance of SI and the PTTrauma score, a novel model incorporating clinical variables. Of the 620 participants, 53 (8.5%) had more than one CAT. An SI > 0.9 was associated with CAT (adjusted OR 4.89, 95% CI 1.64-14.60). The PTTrauma score outperformed SI, ABC, and RABT scores in predicting CAT (AUC 0.867, 95% CI 0.826-0.908). SI is a valuable predictor of CAT in PTTrauma patients. The novel PTTrauma score demonstrates superior performance compared to existing scores, highlighting the importance of developing targeted predictive models for specific injury patterns. These findings can guide clinical decision-making and resource allocation in the management of PTTrauma.

3D-printed external fixation guide combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for the treatment of flail chest: a technical report and case series

Background

Flail chest is a common and serious traumatic condition in thoracic surgery. The treatment of flail chest often includes open reduction and internal fixation, which is relatively traumatic, complicated, and expensive. As three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is widely used in the clinical field, the application of 3D-printed products to chest trauma will become a new treatment option. To date, the use of 3D-printed external fixation guides for flail chests has not been reported. Thus, we aimed to assess the short-term efficacy of a new technology that treated flail chests with an individualized 3D-printed external fixation guide combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).

Patients and methods

A retrospective analysis was performed on patients with flail chest treated with this new technique at our center from January 2020 to December 2022. The following parameters were included: operative time, thoracic tube extraction time, intensive care unit time, thoracic volume recovery rate, visual analog scale score 1 month postoperatively, and postoperative complication rate. All patients were followed up for at least 3 months.

Results

Five patients (mean age: 45.7 years) were enrolled; they successfully underwent surgery without chest wall deformity and quickly returned to daily life. The average number of rib fractures was 8.4; all patients had lung contusion, hemopneumothorax, and anomalous respiration. The abnormal breathing of all patients was completely corrected on postoperative day 1, and the chest wall was stable. One case experienced mild loosening of the 3D-printed guide postoperatively; however, the overall stability was not affected. The other four cases did not experience such loosening because we replaced the ordinary silk wire with a steel wire. All cases were discharged from the hospital 2 weeks postoperatively and returned to normal life 1 month after the removal of the 3D-printed guide on average. Only one case developed a superficial wound infection postoperatively, and no perioperative death occurred.

Conclusions

The 3D-printed external fixation guide combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is a novel technique in the treatment of flail chest and is safe, effective, feasible, and minimally invasive, with satisfactory clinical efficacy.

Surgical stabilization of serial rib fractures is advantageous in patients with relevant traumatic brain injury

Purpose

To evaluate the clinical benefit of surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) in polytrauma patients with serial rib fractures.

Methods

Retrospective single-center cohort analysis in trauma patients. Serial rib fracture was defined as three consecutive ribs confirmed by chest computer tomography (CT). Study cohort includes 243 patients that were treated conservatively and 34 patients that underwent SSRF. Demographic patient data, trauma mechanism, injury pattern, Injury Severity Score (ISS), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and hospital course were analyzed. Two matched pair analyses stratified for ISS (32 pairs) and GCS (25 pairs) were performed.

Results

The majority of patients was male (74%) and aged 55 ± 20 years. Serial rib fractures were associated with more than 6 broken ribs in average (6.3 ± 3.7). Other thoracic bone injury included sternum (18%), scapula (16%) and clavicula (13%). Visceral injury consisted of pneumothorax (51%), lung contusion (33%) and diaphragmatic rupture (2%). Average ISS was 22 ± 7.3. Overall hospital stay was 15.9 and ICU stay 7.4 days. In hospital, mortality was 13%. SSRF did not improve hospital course or postoperative complications in the complete study cohort. However, patients with a significantly reduced GCS (7.6 ± 5.3 vs 11.22 ± 4.8; p = 0.006) benefitted from SSRF. Matched pair analysis stratified for GCS showed shorter ICU stays (9 vs 15 days; p = 0.005) including shorter respirator time (143 vs 305 h; p = 0.003).

Conclusion

Patients with serial rib fractures and simultaneous moderate or severe traumatic brain injury benefit from surgical stabilization of rib fractures.

Curative Effect Observation and Prognosis Analysis of Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery and Thoracotomy in Patients with Hemopneumothorax

Currently, the incidence of hemopneumothorax is high in China, and with the continuous improvement of modern medical standards, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has gradually become the main method of clinical treatment of hemopneumothorax. The aim of this study was to investigate the minimally invasive mechanism and the clinical value of television thoracoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic hemopneumothorax and to provide a relevant theoretical basis for the superiority of television thoracoscopy. In this study, total of 98 patients with traumatic hemopneumothorax admitted to three hospitals from January 2017 to December 2019 were selected and divided into 49 cases each in the thoracotomy group and VATS group according to the differences of the surgical method. The surgical situation such as operation time, intraoperative bleeding, and incision length, postoperative recovery such as duration of painkiller use, chest tube retention time, volume of drainage, and hospital stay, levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and other inflammatory factors at different times after admission to hospital, postoperative complications such as pulmonary infection, enveloped effusion, incisional infection, and pressureulcers, and recurrence rate at 12-month follow-up were used as the evaluation indexes to analyze the effect of different surgical treatment modalities in patients with hemopneumothorax and the impact on patient prognosis. The results showed that the operative time, intraoperative bleeding, duration of painkiller use, chest tube retention time, and hospital stay were shorter in the VATS group than in the thoracotomy group. The length of the surgical incision, volume of drainage, and inflammatory factor levels at different postoperative periods were lower in the VATS group than in the thoracotomy group. The incidence of postoperative complications was lower in both groups, and the difference was not statistically significant. The follow-up results showed that there were no recurrent cases in both groups 12 months after discharge. This indicates that VATS is an effective treatment option for hemopneumothorax, which can achieve the same exploration and treatment effect as thoracotomy, and has the advantages of less trauma, less bleeding, shorter operation time, and faster postoperative recovery compared with thoracotomy. The prognosis of patients treated by VTAS is good, which provides a new treatment route for patients who cannot tolerate thoracotomy and are poorly tolerated.

Damage control for subclavian artery injury

Mortality from penetrating traumas involving the subclavian vessels can be as high as 60% in pre-hospital settings. Operating room mortality is in the range of 5-30%. This paper presents a case in which a strategy for damage control was employed for a patient with an injury to the origin of the left subclavian artery, using subclavian ligation, with no need for any other intervention, and maintaining viability of the left upper limb via collateral circulation. The authors also review surgical approaches and treatment strategies with a focus on damage control in subclavian vessel injuries.

Damage Control Management for Thoracic Trauma with Cardiac Arrest Complicated by Emphysematous Gastritis and Cystitis

A 78-year-old man was found unconscious after sliding from a rock. His history included hypertension, atrial fibrillation and cerebral infarction requiring warfarin. On arrival, he received six units of blood type O transfusion and vitamin K in an emergency room (ER) due to hemorrhagic shock. His systolic blood pressure temporarily increased to 100 mmHg, and he underwent traumatic pan scan revealing occipital fracture, cerebral contusion, and cervical and multiple left rib fractures with left-dominant bilateral hemothorax. He re-entered a shock state after the examination and underwent transfusion again, but he then entered cardiac arrest. He underwent damage control surgery in the ER and obtained spontaneous circulation. The postoperative course was eventful, but he eventually obtained a survival outcome. Damage control surgery may be beneficial, even in cases of severe thoracic blunt trauma; however, postoperative infections may cause severe problems.