Tolulope A. Oyetunji

Insurance status is a potent predictor of outcomes in both blunt and penetrating trauma

BACKGROUND Patients with penetrating injuries are known to have worse outcomes than those with blunt trauma. We hypothesize that within each injury mechanism there should be no outcome difference between insured and uninsured patients. METHODS The National Trauma Data Bank version 7 was analyzed. Patients aged 65 years and older and burn patients were excluded. The insurance status was categorized as insured (private, government/military, or Medicaid) and uninsured. Multivariate analysis adjusted for insurance status, mechanism of injury, age, race, sex, injury severity score, shock, head injury, extremity injury, teaching hospital status, and year. RESULTS A total of 1,203,243 patients were analyzed, with a mortality rate of 3.7%. The death rate was significantly higher in penetrating trauma patients versus blunt trauma patients (7.9% vs 3.0%; P < .001), and higher in the uninsured (5.3% vs 3.2%; P < .001). On multivariate analysis, uninsured patients had an increased odds of death than insured patients, in both penetrating and blunt trauma patients. Penetrating trauma patients with insurance still had a greater risk of death than blunt trauma patients without insurance. CONCLUSIONS Insurance status is a potent predictor of outcome in both penetrating and blunt trauma.

Negative appendectomy: a 10-year review of a nationally representative sample

BACKGROUND Appendectomy remains one of the most common emergency surgical procedures encountered throughout the United States. With improvements in diagnostic techniques, the efficiency of diagnosis has increased over the years. However, the entity of negative appendectomies still poses a dilemma because these are associated with unnecessary risks and costs to both patients and institutions. This study was conducted to show current statistics and trends in negative appendectomy rates in the United States. METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted using data from the National Inpatient Sample from 1998 to 2007. Adult patients (>18 y) having undergone appendectomies were identified by the appropriate International Classification of Diseases 9th revision codes. Patients with incidental appendectomy and those with appendiceal pathologies, also identified by relevant International Classification of Diseases 9th revision codes, were excluded. The remaining patients represent those who underwent an appendectomy without appendiceal disease. The patients then were stratified according to sex, women were classified further into younger (18-45 y) and older (>45 y) based on child-bearing age. The primary diagnoses subsequently were categorized by sex to identify the most common conditions mistaken for appendiceal disease in the 2 groups. RESULTS Between 1998 and 2007, there were 475,651 cases of appendectomy that were isolated. Of these, 56,252 were negative appendectomies (11.83%). There was a consistent decrease in the negative appendectomy rates from 14.7% in 1998 to 8.47% in 2007. Women accounted for 71.6% of cases of negative appendectomy, and men accounted for 28.4%. The mortality rate was 1.07%, men were associated with a higher rate of mortality (1.93% vs .74%; P < .001). Ovarian cyst was the most common diagnosis mistaken for appendicitis in younger women, whereas malignant disease of the ovary was the most common condition mistaken for appendiceal disease in women ages 45 and older. The most common misdiagnosis in men was diverticulitis of the colon. CONCLUSIONS There has been a consistent decline in the rates of negative appendectomy. This trend may be attributed to better diagnostics. Gynecologic conditions involving the ovary are the most common to be misdiagnosed as appendiceal disease in women.

Females have fewer complications and lower mortality following trauma than similarly injured males: A risk adjusted analysis of adults in the National Trauma Data Bank

BACKGROUND Studies of sexual dimorphism in trauma outcomes suggest that women have a survival advantage compared to equivalently injured men. It is unknown if this gender disparity is mediated by potentially life-threatening complications. OBJECTIVE To determine (1) if there is a sex-based differences in the odds of developing inpatient complications after trauma, and (2) if are these complications associated with death among trauma patients. METHODS Review of adult trauma patients admitted to hospitals in the National Trauma Data Bank that report complications. Patient and injury severity covariates were adjusted using multiple logistic regression and the independent effect of sex on developing complications and associated mortality was determined. RESULTS A total of 681,730 adult patients met the inclusion criteria of hospital admission > or =3 days. Women demonstrated a 21% lower adjusted risk of death compared to males (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.76-0.83). Females had decreased adjusted odds of developing life-threatening complications including pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute renal failure and pulmonary embolism. However, when compared to males with life-threatening complications, females with complications were found to be at greater risk of dying. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that women are less likely than men to develop inpatient complications, suggesting that the survival advantage among women after traumatic injury may involve a reduced susceptibility to developing life-threatening complications.

Association Between Hospitals Caring for a Disproportionately High Percentage of Minority Trauma Patients and Increased Mortality: A Nationwide Analysis of 434 Hospitals

OBJECTIVE To determine whether there is an increased odds of mortality among trauma patients treated at hospitals with higher proportions of minority patients (ie, black and Hispanic patients combined). DESIGN Hospitals were categorized on the basis of the percentage of minority patients admitted with trauma. The adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were compared between hospitals with less than 25% of patients who were minorities (the reference group) and hospitals with 25% to 50% of patients who were minorities and hospitals with more than 50% of patients who were minorities. Multivariate logistic regression (with generalized linear modeling and a cluster-correlated robust estimate of variance) was used to control for multiple patient and injury severity characteristics. SETTING A total of 434 hospitals in the National Trauma Data Bank. PARTICIPANTS Patients aged 18 to 64 years whose medical records were included in the National Trauma Data Bank for the years 2007 and 2008 with an Injury Severity Score of 9 or greater and who were white, black, or Hispanic. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Crude mortality and adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality. RESULTS A total of 311,568 patients were examined. Hospitals in which the percentage of minority patients was more than 50% also had younger patients, fewer female patients, more patients with penetrating trauma, and the highest crude mortality. After adjustment for potential confounders, patients treated at hospitals in which the percentage of minority patients was 25% to 50% and at hospitals in which the percentage of minority patients was more than 50% demonstrated increased odds of death (adjusted odds ratio, 1.16 [95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.34] and adjusted odds ratio, 1.37 [95% confidence interval, 1.16-1.61], respectively), compared with the reference group. This disparity increased further on subset analysis of patients with a blunt injury. Uninsured patients had significantly increased odds of mortality within all 3 hospital groups. CONCLUSIONS Patients treated at hospitals with higher proportions of minority trauma patients have increased odds of dying, even after adjusting for potential confounders. Differences in outcomes between trauma hospitals may partly explain racial disparities.

Multiple imputation in trauma disparity research.

BACKGROUND Missing data has remained a major disparity in trauma outcomes research due to missing race and insurance data. Multiple imputation (M.IMP) has been recommended as a solution to deal with this major drawback. STUDY DESIGN Using the National Data Trauma Bank (NTDB) as an example, a complete dataset was developed by deleting cases with missing data across variables of interest. An incomplete dataset was then created from the complete set using random deletion to simulate the original NTDB, followed by five M.IMP rounds to generate a final imputed dataset. Identical multivariate analyses were performed to investigate the effect of race and insurance on mortality in both datasets. RESULTS Missing data proportions for known trauma mortality covariates were as follows: age-4%, gender-0.4%, race-8%, insurance-17%, injury severity score-6%, revised trauma score-20%, and trauma type-3%. The M.IMP dataset results were qualitatively similar to the original dataset. CONCLUSION M.IMP is a feasible tool in NTDB for handling missing race and insurance data.

Simplifying Physiologic Injury Severity Measurement for Predicting Trauma Outcomes

BACKGROUND The Revised Trauma Score (RTS) is commonly used to assess physiologic injury; however its use is limited by missing data. This study compares different parameters of physiologic injury assessment in their ability to predict mortality after trauma. METHODS Adult patients in the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB version 7.0) were analyzed, and the following physiologic injury parameters were compared: RTS, systolic blood pressure (SBP), shock (SBP <or= 90 mm Hg), Glasgow coma scale-total (GCS-T), and GCS-motor (GCS-M). Areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves (AUROC) were calculated for unadjusted and multivariate regression models to predict mortality after trauma. RESULTS There were 1,484,648 patients who met inclusion criteria. In unadjusted analyses, RTS had the highest proportion of missing data (21%) and was highly predictive of mortality (AUROC = 0.85). SBP and shock had a much lower AUROC of 0.67 and 0.66, respectively, but had many fewer missing cases. The combination parameters of GCS-M with SBP or GCS-M with shock showed AUROC comparable to RTS (0.85) with approximately 80,000 fewer missing cases. CONCLUSION The discriminatory power of RTS is significantly better than SBP, shock, or GCS alone. Given the limitation of missing data associated with RTS, the combination of SBP and GCS-M is a more reliable and equally effective method of assessing physiologic injury severity in studying trauma outcomes.

Early-stage gallbladder cancer in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database: effect of extended surgical resection.

HYPOTHESIS Extended surgical resection (ESR) may improve survival in patients with early-stage primary gallbladder cancer. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of findings in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. SETTING Academic research. PATIENTS Individuals with potentially surgically curable gallbladder cancer (Tis, T1, or T2) who underwent a surgical procedure. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Overall survival, number of lymph nodes (LNs) excised, and results of simple cholecystectomy vs ESR. RESULTS We identified 3209 patients with early-stage gallbladder cancer (11.7% Tis, 30.1% T1, and 58.2% T2). On multivariate analysis, decreased survival was noted among patients older than 60 years (hazard ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.30-1.90), among patients with more advanced cancer (1.99; 1.46-2.70 for T1; 3.29; 2.45-4.43 for T2), and among patients with disease-positive LNs (1.65; 1.39-1.95 for regional; 2.58; 1.54-4.34 for distant) (P < .001 for all), while increased survival was observed among female patients (0.82; 0.70-0.96; P = .02) and among patients undergoing ESR (0.59; 0.45-0.78; P < .001). The survival advantage of ESR was seen only in patients with T2 lesions (0.49; 0.35-0.68; P < .001). Lymph node excision data were available for a subset of 2507 patients, of whom 68.2% had no LN excised, 28.2% had 1 to 4 LNs excised, and 3.6% had 5 or more LNs excised. On multivariate analysis, patients with 1 to 4 LNs excised had a survival benefit over those with no LN excised (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.46-0.66; P < .001), and patients with 5 or more LNs excised had a survival benefit over patients with 1 to 4 LNs removed (0.63; 0.40-0.96; P = .03). Lymph node excision improved survival in patients with T2 lesions (0.42; 0.33-0.53; P < .001 for patients with 1-4 LNs excised). CONCLUSION Extended surgical resection, LN excision, or both may improve survival in certain patients with incidentally discovered gallbladder cancer.

Validating the Injury Severity Score (ISS) In Different Populations: ISS Predicts Mortality Better Among Hispanics and Females

INTRODUCTION The Injury Severity Score (ISS) is the most commonly used measure of injury severity. The score has been shown to have excellent predictive capability for trauma mortality and has been validated in multiple data sets. However, the score has never been tested to see if its discriminatory ability is affected by differences in race and gender. OBJECTIVE This study is aimed at validating the ISS in men and women and in three different race/ethnic groups using a nationwide database. METHODS Retrospective analysis of patients age 18-64 y in the National Trauma Data Bank 7.0 with blunt trauma was performed. ISS was categorized as mild (<9,) moderate (9-15), severe (16-25), and profound (>25). Logistic regression was done to measure the relative odds of mortality associated with a change in ISS categories. The discriminatory ability was compared using the receiver operating characteristics curves (ROC). A P value testing the equality of the ROC curves was calculated. Age stratified analyses were also conducted. RESULTS A total of 872,102 patients had complete data for the analysis on ethnicity, while 763,549 patients were included in the gender analysis. The overall mortality rate was 3.7%. ROC in Whites was 0.8617, in Blacks 0.8586, and in Hispanics 0.8869. Hispanics have a statistically significant higher ROC (P value < 0.001). Similar results were observed within each age category. ROC curves were also significantly higher in females than in males. CONCLUSION The ISS possesses excellent discriminatory ability in all populations as indicated by the high ROCs.

Racial disparities in motorcycle-related mortality: an analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank

BACKGROUND Studies have shown racial disparities in outcomes after motor vehicle crashes; however, it is currently unknown if race impacts the likelihood of mortality after a motorcycle crash (MCC). The primary objective of this study was to determine if race is associated with MCC mortality. METHODS We performed a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of MCCs included in the National Trauma Data Bank between 2002 and 2006. Multiple logistic regression was used to adjust for age, sex, insurance status, year, helmet use, and injury severity characteristics. RESULTS Black patients had a 1.58 (95% confidence interval, 1.28-1.97) increased odds of mortality after a MCC, but were more likely to use a helmet (1.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-1.43) compared with their white counterparts (n = 62,840). CONCLUSIONS Black motorcyclists appear more likely to die after a MCC compared with whites. Although the reasons for this disparity are unclear, these data suggest that resources beyond encouraging helmet use are necessary to reduce fatalities among black motorcyclists.

Motorcycle Helmets Associated with Lower Risk of Cervical Spine Injury: Debunking the Myth

BACKGROUND There has been a repeal of the universal helmet law in several states despite definitive evidence that helmets reduce mortality, traumatic brain injury, and hospital expenditures. Opponents of the universal helmet law have successfully claimed that helmets should not be required because of greater torque on the neck, which is thought to increase the likelihood of a cervical spine injury. There is currently insufficient evidence to counter claims that helmets do not increase the risk of cervical spine injury after a motorcycle collision. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of motorcycle helmets on the likelihood of developing a cervical spine injury after a motorcycle collision. STUDY DESIGN We reviewed cases in the National Trauma Databank (NTDB) v7.0 involving motorcycle collisions. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the independent effect of helmets on cervical spine injury. Cases were adjusted for age, race, sex, insurance status, anatomic (Injury Severity Score) and physiologic injury severity (systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg), and head injury (Abbreviated Injury Score > 3). RESULTS Between 2002 and 2006, 62,840 cases of motorcycle collision were entered into the NTDB; 40,588 had complete data and were included in the adjusted analysis. Helmeted riders had a lower adjusted odds (0.80 [CI 0.72 to 0.90]) and a lower proportion of cervical spine injury (3.5% vs 4.4%, p < 0.05) compared with nonhelmeted riders. CONCLUSIONS Helmeted motorcyclists are less likely to suffer a cervical spine injury after a motorcycle collision. This finding challenges a long-standing objection to mandatory helmet use that claims helmets are associated with cervical spine injury. Re-enactment of the universal helmet law should be considered in states where it has been repealed.