Hasnain Zafar

Registry based trauma outcome: perspective of a developing country

Objective: To report trauma outcome from a developing country based on the Trauma and Injury Severity Scoring (TRISS) method and compare the outcome with the registry data from Major Trauma Outcome Study (MTOS). Design: Registry based audit of all trauma patients over two years. Setting: Emergency room of a teaching university hospital. Subjects: 279 injured patients meeting trauma team activation criteria including all deaths in the emergency room. Outcome measures: TRISS methodology to compare expected and observed outcome. Statistical analysis: W, M, and Z statistics and comparison with MTOS data. Results: 279 patients meeting the trauma triage criteria presented to the emergency room, 235 (84.2%) were men and 44 (15.8%) women. Blunt injury accounted for 204 (73.1%) and penetrating for 75 (26.9%) patients. Seventy two patients had injury severity score of more than 15. Only 18 (6.4%) patients were transported in an ambulance. A total of 142 (50.9%) patients were transferred from other hospitals with a mean prehospital delay of 7.1 hours. M statistic of our study subset was 0.97, indicating a good match between our patients and MTOS cohort. There were 18 deaths with only one unexpected survivor. The expected number of deaths based on MTOS dataset should have been 12. Conclusions: Present injury severity instruments using MTOS coefficients do not accurately correlate with observed survival rates in a developing country.

National estimates of predictors of outcomes for emergency general surgery.

BACKGROUND Identifying predictors of mortality and surgical complications has led to outcome improvements for a variety of surgical conditions. However, similar work has yet to be done for factors affecting outcomes of emergency general surgery (EGS). The objective of this study was to determine the predictors of in-hospital complications and mortality among EGS patients. METHODS The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2003–2011) was queried for patients with conditions encompassing EGS as determined by the American Association for Surgery of Trauma, categorizing them into predefined EGS groups using DRG International Classification of Diseases—9th Rev.—Clinical Modification codes. Primary outcomes considered included incidence of a major complication (pneumonia, pulmonary emboli, urinary tract infections, myocardial infarctions, sepsis, or septic shock) and in-hospital mortality. Separate multivariate logistic regression analyses for complications and mortality were performed to identify risk factors of either outcome from the following domains: patient demographics (age, sex, insurance type, race, and income quartile), comorbidities, and hospital characteristics (location, teaching status, and bed size). RESULTS This study included 6,712,151 discharge records, weighted to represent 32,910,446 visits for EGS conditions. Mean age was 58.50 (19.74) years; slightly more than half (54.66%) were female. Uninsured patients were more likely to die (odds ratio,1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.20–1.30), whereas patients in the highest income quartile had the least likelihood of mortality (odds ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.84–0.87). Old age was an independent predictor of mortality for all EGS subdiagnoses. The overall mortality rate was 1.76%; the overall complication rate was 10.03%. Of the patients who died, 62% experienced at least one major complication. Patients requiring resuscitation had the highest likelihood of mortality followed by patients with vascular disease and hepatic disease. CONCLUSION Death patterns of EGS patients were discerned using an administrative data set. Understanding patterns of mortality and complications derived from studies such as this could improve hospital benchmarking for EGS, akin to trauma surgery’s previous success. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic and epidemiologic study, level III.

Hospital-based trauma quality improvement initiatives: first step toward improving trauma outcomes in the developing world.

BACKGROUND Injuries remain a leading cause of death in the developing world. Whereas new investments are welcome, quality improvement (QI) at the currently available trauma care facilities is essential. The objective of this study was to determine the effect and long-term sustainability of trauma QI initiatives on in-hospital mortality and complications at a large tertiary hospital in a developing country. METHODS In 2002, a specialized trauma team was formed (members trained using advanced trauma life support), and a western style trauma program established including a registry and quality assurance program. Patients from 1998 onward were entered in to this registry, enabling a preimplementation and postimplementation study. Adults (>15 years) with blunt or penetrating trauma were analyzed. The main outcomes of interest were (1) in-hospital mortality and (2) occurrence of any complication. Multiple logistic regression was performed to assess the impact of formalized trauma care on outcomes, controlling for covariates reaching significance in the bivariate analyses. RESULTS A total of 1,227 patient records were analyzed. Patient demographics and injury characteristics are described in Table 1. Overall in-hospital mortality rate was 6.4%, and the complication rate was 11.1%. On multivariate analysis, patients admitted during the trauma service years were 4.9 times less likely to die (95% confidence interval, 1.77–13.57) and 2.60 times (odds ratio; 95% confidence interval, 1.29–5.21) less likely to have a complication compared with those treated in the pretrauma service years. CONCLUSION Despite significant delays in hospital transit and lack of prehospital trauma care, hospital level implementation of trauma QI program greatly decreases mortality and complication rates in the developing world. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Care management study, level IV.

Peer Review Audit of Trauma Deaths in a Developing Country

OBJECTIVES Peer review of trauma deaths can be used to evaluate the efficacy of trauma systems. The objective of this study was to estimate teh proportion of preventable trauma deaths and the factors contributing to poor outcome using peer review in a tertiary care hospital in a developing country. METHODS All trauma deaths during a 2-year period (1 January 1998 to 30 December 1998) were identified and registered in a computerized trauma registry, and the probability of survival was calculated for all patients. Summary data, including registry information and details of prehospital, emergency room, and definitive care, were provided to all members of the peer review committee 1 week before the committee meeting. The committee then reviewed all cases and classified each death as preventable, potentially preventable, or non-preventable. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION A total fo 279 patients were registered in the trauma registry during the study period, including 18 trauma deaths. Peer review judged that six were preventable, seven were potentially preventable, and four were non-preventable. One patient was excluded because the record was not available for review. The proportion of preventable and potentially preventable deaths was significantly higher in our study than from developed countries. Of the multiple contributing factors identified, the most important were inadequate prehospital transfer, limited hospital resources, and an absence of integrated and organized trauma care. This study summarizes the challenges faced in trauma care in a developing country.

Emergency incisional hernia repair: a difficult problem waiting for a solution

BackgroundEmergency repair of incarcerated incisional hernia with associated bowel obstruction in potentially or contaminated field is technically challenging due to edematous, inflamed and friable tissues with occasional need for concurrent bowel resection and carries high rates of post-operative infectious complications. The aim of this study was to retrospectively assess the wound related morbidity of use of permanent prosthetic mesh in emergency repair of incarcerated incisional hernia with associated bowel obstruction. We also describe a new technique of leaving the mesh exposed to heal by secondary intention with granulation tissue.MethodsBetween 2000 and 2010 a total of 60 patients underwent emergency surgery for incarcerated incisional hernia with associated bowel obstruction with placement of permanent prosthetic mesh. The wound was closed after hernia repair in 55 patients while it was left open to granulate in 5 patients.ResultsIn the group of patients with primary wound closure, 11 patients developed superficial surgical site infection, 5 developed deep wound infection and one patient had cellulitis. These patients were treated with wound debridement and antibiotics. Mesh removal was required in one patient. There were no infections in the group of patients who had their surgical wounds left open. One patient in this group died on the fifth postoperative day from septicemia.ConclusionUse of permanent prosthetic mesh in emergency repair of incarcerated incisional hernia with associated bowel obstruction. in contaminated field is associated with high risk of wound infection.

Predictors of sepsis in moderately severely injured patients: an analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank

BACKGROUND Post-traumatic sepsis is a significant cause of in-hospital death. However, socio-demographic and clinical characteristics that may predict sepsis in injured patients are not well known. The objective of this study was to identify risk factors that may be associated with post-traumatic sepsis. METHODS Retrospective analysis of patients in the National Trauma Data Bank for 2007-2008. Patients older than 16 years of age with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 9 points were included. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine association of sepsis with patient (age, gender, ethnicity, and insurance status), injury (mechanism, ISS, injury type, hypotension), and clinical (major surgical procedure, intensive care unit admission) characteristics. RESULTS Of a total of 1.3 million patients, 373,370 met the study criteria, and 1.4% developed sepsis, with an associated mortality rate of approximately 20%. Age, male gender, African-American race, hypotension on emergency department presentation, and motor vehicle crash as the injury mechanism were independently associated with post-traumatic sepsis. CONCLUSIONS Socio-demographic and injury factors, such as age, race, hypotension on admission, and severity and mechanism of injury predict post-traumatic sepsis significantly. Further exploration to explain why these patient groups are at increased risk is warranted in order to understand better and potentially prevent this life-threatening complication.

Suicidal bus bombing of French nationals in Pakistan: physical injuries and management of survivors

Background: Suicidal bombing is particularly devastating and an increasingly common form of terrorist violence. In this paper, we present an epidemiologic description of the physical injuries of patients who survived the suicidal bombing attack in the context of the limited medical resources of a developing nation. Methods: The management of individual patients was reviewed from a preprinted trauma form. Information on the nature of injuries, operative management and hospital course was recorded and data analyzed using the Trauma Registry. Results: Twelve survivors out of 36 bomb blast victims brought to the Aga Khan University Hospital were transferred from primary receiving hospitals. The average number of injuries per patient was eight. The mean Injury Severity Score was 10.8. The majority of patients had secondary and tertiary blast injuries. Most of the survivors had calcaneal injuries; these have not been reported in the literature in similar terrorist attacks. Twelve operative interventions were undertaken. All of the 12 patients were stabilized and evacuated within 24 h of admission. Conclusions: All of the 12 patients transferred to the Aga Khan University Hospital survived. Unlike the reported injuries, calcaneal fractures were most commonly encountered in the survivors.

Risk factors of gallbladder cancer in Karachi-a case-control study

BackgroundGallbladder carcinoma (GC) is a relatively rare malignancy worldwide but is the second commonest gastrointestinal cancer in Pakistani women. Gallstones have a positive association with GC but other factors also influence in causation.MethodsThis is a retrospective case control study over a period of 19 years. The cases (Group A) were patients with histopathological proven carcinoma gallbladder (N = 60) and controls were patients with cholelithiasis but no carcinoma gallbladder on histopathology (N = 120). Multivariate regression analysis was done to calculate the odds ratio, 95% confidence interval and P-Value. A positive relationship was found between size of stone > 1 cm, solitary stone, age > 55 years and multi-parity in women.ResultsThere were 60 patients in Group A and 120 patients in Group B. mean age of diagnosis in Group A patients was 57 ± 2.4 years while mean age of diagnosis in Group B patients was 48 ± 1.35 years. Sixty seven percent of cancer group patients were female as compared to 78% females in non-cancer group. In Group A, 69% of female patients were multiparous (parity of more than 5) while 43% of group B patients were multiparous. For body mass index (BMI), both groups were not very different in our study population i.e. around 78% patients in each group has BMI of more than 23 Kg/m2. In Group A, 37% (n = 22) have solitary stones as compared to 15% (n = 18) in group B. similarly Group A patients has larger stone size as compared to Group B i.e.59% (n = 36) patients in Group A have stones of more than 1 cm when compared to 35% (n = 41) patients in Group B. After using multivariate regression analysis, age more than 55 years (OR - 7.27, p value- < 0.001), solitary stone (OR - 3.33, p value - 0.002) and stone of more than 1 cm (OR - 2.73, p value - 0.004) were found to be independent risk factors for development of gallbladder cancer.ConclusionMost of the patients (78%) with GC were female, and the statistically significant risk factors were older age, solitary stones and stones size more than one centimeter. A case can be made for prophylactic cholecystectomy in such a high risk group. However a population based study is required to calculate the true incidence of GC in Karachi and a prospective multi center study is needed to produce strong evidence for screening and prophylactic cholecystectomy.Trial RegistrationAs this was a retrospective review of medical records, as per institution policy, its gives waiver from any registration (ethical/trial).

Transfer delay and in-hospital mortality of trauma patients in Pakistan

BACKGROUND Mortality and morbidity in trauma remain a major problem in developing countries. Organized emergency response systems for transfer of trauma patients to hospitals are absent and the consequent delays could cause significant complications. AIMS This study assessed the outcomes as a result of hospital transfer and delays in trauma patients. METHODS The study was based on trauma patients presenting to the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi, Pakistan from 1998 to 2005, meeting the trauma team activation criteria. Data were collected and entered in a Trauma Registry. The study focused on analyzing the outcomes of injury to delay in definitive treatment and survival. RESULTS Out of 978 patients, only 303 (30.9%) patients reached the emergency room (ER) within an hour. The mean time from injury occurrence to arrival in the ER was 4.7h. There was no significant difference in mortality between all patients presenting early and those with more than 1h delay (OR=0.9, 95% CI: 0.6, 1.5). CONCLUSIONS Transfer and delay in admission to a tertiary care center does not affect in-hospital mortality of trauma patients in a setting with no emergency response system. This may be due to self selection of patients who survive long enough to reach the hospital.

Treatment of complex fistula in ano with cable-tie seton: a prospective case series.

Objective. To determine the fecal incontinence and recurrence rate in patients with complex fistula in ano managed with cable tie seton at a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods. This is a prospective case series of patients with complex anal fistula i.e. recurrent fistula or encircling >30% of external anal sphincter, managed with cable tie seton from March 2003 to March 2009. Patients were seen in the clinic after 72 hours of seton insertion under anesthesia and then every other week. Each time the cable-tie was tightened if found loose without anesthesia and incontinence was inquired according to wexners score. Results. Seventy nine patients were treated during the study period with the age (mean ± standard deviation) of 41 ± 10.6 years and. The seton was tightened with a median of six times (3–15 times range). Complete healing was achieved in 11.2 ± 5.7 weeks. All the patients were followed for a minimum period of one year and none of the patients had any incontinence. Recurrence was found in 4 (5%) patients. Conclusion. The cable tie seton is safe, cost effective and low morbidity option for the treatment of complex fistulae-in-ano. It can, therefore, be recommended as the standard of treatment for complex fistulae-in-ano requiring the placement of a seton.