Infections in traumatised patients: a growing medico-surgical concern.
Accidents and trauma are a leading global cause of mortality in young adults. Infections are one of the most important causes of death in traumatized patients. This is because of factors related to host and those due to trauma itself. Trauma jeopardizes the host's tissue integrity and immune effector mechanisms. Severely traumatized patients admitted to the ICUs are prone to get nosocomial infections due to open wounds and indwelling life saving devices. Massive blood loss also impairs the distribution of polymorphs, complement and antibiotics to the damaged tissues. Finally, diagnosis of infections in traumatized patients poses a challenge to clinicians due to various factors.
Mathur
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Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jai Prakash Narain Apex Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi - 110 029, India. purvamathur@yahoo.co.in
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D014946:Wound Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology