Predicting mortality in damage control surgery for major abdominal trauma.
BACKGROUND
Damage control surgery (DCS) has become well established in the past decade as the surgical strategy to be employed in the unstable trauma patient. The aim of this study was to determine which factors played a predictive role in determining mortality in patients undergoing a damage control laparotomy.


METHODS
A retrospective review of all patients undergoing a laparotomy and DCS in a level 1 trauma centre over a 3-year period was performed. Twenty-nine potentially predictive variables for mortality were analysed.


RESULTS
Of a total of 1 274 patients undergoing a laparotomy for trauma, 74 (6%) required a damage control procedure. The mean age was 28 years (range 14 - 53 years). The mechanism of injury was gunshot wounds in 57 cases (77%), blunt trauma in 14 (19%) and stabs in 3 (4%). Twenty patients died, giving an overall mortality rate of 27%. Factors significantly associated with increased mortality were increasing age (p=0.001), low base excess (p=0.002), pH (p<0.001), core temperature (p=0.002), and high blood transfusion requirement over 24 hours (p=0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
The overall survival of patients after damage control procedures for abdominal trauma was excellent (73%). The main factors that are useful in deciding when to initiate DCS are age, base excess, pH and the core temperature.
Timmermans
Joep
J
Department of Surgery, Atrium Medical Centre, University of Maastricht, Holland.
Nicol
Andrew
A
Kairinos
Nick
N
Teijink
Joep
J
Prins
Martin
M
Navsaria
Pradeep
P
D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D006488:Hemostasis, Surgical; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000379:methods*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014194:Traumatology / Q000458:organization & administration; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000601:surgery; D055815:Young Adult