title: The association between anemia and the mortality of severe traumatic brain injury in emergency department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anemia is a common medical problem for critically ill patients. Blood transfusion to augment oxygen delivery for these patients has been a traditional therapy. However, few studies have identified the impact of anemia on individuals suffering from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Hence, this study aims to evaluate the effects of initial anemia on patients with severe TBI admitted to the Emergency Unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the medical records of patients with isolated severe TBI admitted to the Emergency Unit of a university hospital from July 2003 to June 2008. Patients were divided into two groups based on their initial anemia data taken while in the Emergency Unit. The anemia datum is defined as hemoglobin (Hb) <10 mg/dL. The t test was used to identify the differences between the two groups, while logistic regression was applied to determine any significant differences found in the statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 234 patients were signed up in our study. Based on their initial hemoglobin at emergency department, 23 patients (9.8%) comprised the anemia group, 17 patients (7.3%) comprised the nonanemia group, whereas 112 patients (47.9%) belonging to the nonanemia group were deceased. There is no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.076; odds ratio, 0.97; confidence interval, 0.78-1.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows that initial anemia is not a mortality risk factor for patients with isolated severe blunt TBI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Puzih City, Chiayi County, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chia-Jung
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Kuang-Yu
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: I-Chun
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: I-Chuan
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000740:Anemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012016:Reference Values; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013624:Taiwan; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014218:Triage