Published papers

Background: The optimal candidates for resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) remains unclear. We hypothesized patients with delayed transfer to operating room (OR) would benefit from REBOA. Methods: Using the 2016–2017 ACS-TQIP database, patients were divided based on the transfer time to OR: ≤1 h (early) and >1 h (delayed). In each group, patients who underwent REBOA in emergency department (ED-REBOA) were matched with those without REBOA (non-REBOA) using propensity scores, and survival to discharge was compared. Results: Among 163,453 patients, 114 and 138 patients (38 and 46 ED-REBOA) were included in the early and delayed groups, respectively. Survival to discharge was comparable between ED-REBOA and non-REBOA patients in the early group (39.5% vs. 48.7%, p = 0.35), whereas it was higher in ED-REBOA patients in the delayed group (39.1% vs. 12.0%, p < 0.01). Conclusions: Patients with delayed transfer to OR >1 h benefited from REBOA.

BACKGROUND: A health-economic evaluation related to COVID-19 is urgently needed to allocate healthcare resources efficiently; however, relevant medical cost data in Japan concerning COVID-19 are scarce. METHODS: This cross-sectional study investigated the healthcare cost for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in 2021 at Keio University Hospital. We calculated the healthcare costs during hospitalization using hospital claims data and investigated the variables significantly related to the healthcare cost with multivariable analysis. RESULTS: The median healthcare cost per patient for the analyzed 330 patients was Japanese yen (JPY) 1,304,431 (US dollars ~ 11,871) (interquartile range: JPY 968,349-1,954,093), and the median length of stay was 10 days. The median healthcare cost was JPY 798,810 for mild cases; JPY 1,113,680 for moderate I cases; JPY 1,643,909 for moderate II cases; and JPY 6,210,607 for severe cases. Healthcare costs increased by 4.0% for each additional day of hospitalization; 1.26 times for moderate I cases, 1.64 times for moderate II cases, and 1.84 times for severe cases compared to mild cases; and 2.05 times for cases involving ICU stay compared to those not staying in ICU. CONCLUSIONS: We clarified the healthcare cost for hospitalized COVID-19 patients by severity in a Japanese university hospital. These costs contribute as inputs for forthcoming health economic evaluations for strategies for preventing and treating COVID-19.

© 2018 by Thieme Medical Publishers, In. Colon injury is not uncommon and occurs in about a half of patients with penetrating hollow viscus injuries. Despite major advances in the operative management of penetrating colon wounds, there remains discussion regarding the appropriate treatment of destructive colon injuries, with a significant amount of scientific evidence supporting segmental resection with primary anastomosis in most patients without comorbidities or large transfusion requirement. Although literature is sparse concerning the management of blunt colon injuries, some studies have shown operative decision based on an algorithm originally defined for penetrating wounds should be considered in blunt colon injuries. The optimal management of colonic injuries in patients requiring damage control surgery (DCS) also remains controversial. Studies have recently reported that there is no increased risk compared with patients treated without DCS if fascial closure is completed on the first reoperation, or that a management algorithm for penetrating colon wounds is probably efficacious for colon injuries in the setting of DCS as well.

© 2019 Introduction: While various strategies of fracture fixation in trauma victims have been discussed, the effect of damage control orthopedics (DCO) on significant clinical outcome is inconclusive. We examined the mortality of patients managed with DCO, comparing those without DCO, using a nationwide trauma database. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with extremity injury, defined as patients with an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) of ≥2 in an upper or lower extremity, in the database that included more than 200 major hospitals from 2004 to 2016. We included those who were age ≥15 years and underwent ORIF. Patients with missing survival data or invalid vital signs at hospital arrival were excluded. Patient data were divided into DCO or non-DCO groups, and propensity scores were developed to estimate the probability of being assigned to the DCO group, using multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for known survival predictors, such as age, vital signs at arrival, Abbreviated Injury Scale in extremity, ISS, presence of vascular injury, surgical procedure before fracture treatment, and transfusion requirement. The primary outcome, in-hospi

© 2018 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Objective: Facial lacerations, which are common in the emergency department, have usually been repaired by non–facial trauma specialists, such as emergency physicians. Given the ongoing discussion regarding quality assurance or the optimal training model on facial laceration repair for nonspecialists, we sought to determine the impact of a 1-year wound closure training provided to emergency physicians. We hypothesized a decrease in early complications following facial wound closure after the training. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted between 2013 and 2015 at an academic center. We included patients with isolated facial lacerations that were repaired by emergency physicians and reviewed by board-certified plastic surgeons during a follow-up visit. Patients whose wounds were not reviewed within 3 days were excluded. The 1-year training curriculum, which consisted of several sessions of lecture, hands-on practice, and case review, had been developed by a multidisciplinary team and provided to emergency physicians. Patient data were divided between nonparticipant and participant groups, and a propensity score was developed to estimate the probability of being assigned to the participant group. The incidence of early complications, defined as the need for additional suturing or resuturing due to wound dehiscence, was compared among the groups after propensity score matching. Results: Although 132 patients satisfied all the inclusion criteria, 11 were excluded due to delayed initial wound review. Among the 70 patients who were eventually included in the participant group, 40 were matched with those in the nonparticipant group. The incidence of early complications was significantly lower in the participant group than in the nonparticipant group (5.0% vs. 20.0%, odds ratio = 0.21, 95% confidence interval = 0.07–0.61, p = 0.04). Conclusions: The 1-year training provided to emergency physicians reduced the incidence of early complications following facial laceration repair. Accordingly, future wound closure training models should consider the 1-year training curriculum presented herein.

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. Background: The optimal candidates for resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) remain unclear. We hypothesized that patients who experience delays in surgical intervention would benefit from REBOA. Methods: Using the Japan Trauma Databank (2014–2019), patients transferred to the operating room (OR) within 3 h were identified. Patients treated with REBOA were matched with those without REBOA using propensity scores, and further divided based on the transfer time to OR: ≤ 1 h (early), 1–2 h (delayed), and >2 h (significantly-delayed). Survival to discharge was compared. Results: Among 5258 patients, 310 underwent REBOA. In 223 matched pairs, patients treated with REBOA had improved survival (56.5% vs. 31.8%; p < 0.01), although in-hospital mortality was reduced by REBOA only in the delayed and significantly-delayed subgroups (HR = 0.43 [0.28–0.65] and 0.42 [0.25–0.71]). Conclusions: REBOA-treated trauma patients who experience delays in surgical intervention (>1 h) have improved survival.

Background: While various strategies of fracture fixation for trauma patients have been discussed, optimal candidates remain unclear for early definitive fixation. The aim of this study was to integrate several clinical parameters into a scoring system and determine a cut-off value for safe early definitive surgery for extremity fractures. Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with fracture in an extremity in Japanese Trauma Data Bank from 2004 to 2019. We included adult patients who underwent open reduction and internal fixation for extremity injury before any other surgical intervention and excluded those who arrived with cardiac arrest. Several clinical parameters, such as age, vital signs, abbreviated injury scale (AIS) in the chest, and injury severity score (ISS), were examined with multivariate logistic regression models to predict in-hospital mortality, and then integrated into a scoring system based on each odds ratio. To determine a cut-off value of the scoring system for safe early definitive surgery, in-hospital mortality and/or postoperative complications were compared between patients who underwent definitive fixation within 24 h of injury and patients who did not in subgroups based on the scores. Results: Of 50,631 patients eligible for this study, 16,119 (31.8%) underwent early definitive fixation. A 0–15 scoring system with parameters including age >70 years, GCS <8, systolic blood pressure <90 mmHg, AIS in the chest ≥3, ISS ≥20, and transfusion requirement within 24 h of arrival was developed. At scores ≥10, early definitive fixation was found to be significantly associated with high in-hospital mortality, and at scores <10, in-hospital mortality was comparable between the two groups. Conclusions: We integrated clinical parameters into the scoring system with a scale of 0–15 and determined that a score of 10 is the cut-off score. We determined that patients with a score <10 can safely undergo early definitive fixation.

Background: Acute aortic dissection (AAD) with concurrent ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is relatively rare and sometimes overlooked. As D-dimer testing has been reported to have high sensitivity to diagnose AAD in a clinical scale, Aortic Dissection Detection Risk Score (ADD-RS), a point-of-care D-dimer analyzer capable of measuring in 10 min would be useful to deny AAD with concurrent STEMI. However, an optimal cut-off value of D-dimer in such population remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to elucidate the optimal D-dimer threshold in patients clinically diagnosed with STEMI. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at two tertiary care centers between 2014 and 2019. Patients clinically diagnosed with STEMI who underwent serum D-dimer measurement on hospital arrival were included. The primary outcome was the diagnosis of AAD. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for D-dimer values to diagnose AAD was evaluated, particularly in patients with low to moderate risks of AAD (1 of ADD-RS). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated with several cut-off values. Results: A total of 322 patients were included, and 28 were diagnosed with AAD. The AUROC for D-dimer to diagnose AAD was 0.970 (95% confidence interval: 0.948–0.993) in 262 patients with 1 of ADD-RS. If D-dimer ≥750 ng/mL was used as a cut-off value, sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were 100%, 86.4%, 37.7%, and 100%, respectively. AAD could be denied in 209 (79.8%) patients using the cut-off value (D-dimer <750 ng/mL). Conclusions: Serum D-dimer ≥750 ng/mL exhibited high sensitivity and NPV to diagnose AAD with concurrent STEMI, while the ADD-RS originally utilized ≥500 ng/mL as a cut-off for any suspected AAD. A point-of-care D-dimer measurement with the new cut-off would be useful to rule-out AAD among patients with STEMI.

© 2019 Yamamoto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background Given that there are still considerable number of facilities which lack surgical specialists round the clock across the world, the ability to estimate the requirement for emergency surgery in victims of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) can ensure appropriate resource allocation. In this study, a surgical intervention in victims of MVC (SIM) score was developed and validated, using independent patient cohorts. Methods We retrospectively identified MVC victims in a nationwide trauma registry (2004–2016). Adults ≥ 15 years who presented with palpable pulse were included. Patients with missing data on the type/date of surgery were excluded. Patient were allocated to development or validation cohorts based on the date of injury. After missing values were imputed, predictors of the need for emergency thoracotomy and/or laparotomy were identified with multivariate logistic regression, and scores were then assigned using odds ratios. The SIM score was validated with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and calibration plots of SIM score-derived probability and observed rates of emergency surgery. Results We assigned 13,328 and 12,348 patients to the development and validation cohorts, respectively. Age, motor vehicle collision and vital signs on hospital arrival were identified as independent predictors for emergency thoracotomy and/or laparotomy, and SIM score was developed as 0–9 scales. The score has a good discriminatory power (AUROC = 0.79; 95% confidence interval = 0.77–0.81), and both estimated and observed rates of emergency surgery increased stepwise from 1% at a score ≤ 1 to almost 40% at a score ≥ 8 with linear calibration plots. Conclusions The SIM score was developed and validated to accurately estimate the need for emergent thoracotomy and/or laparotomy in MVC victims.

OBJECTIVES: Several inflammation markers have been reported to be associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. We aimed to elucidate whether serum interleukin-6 concentration considered with Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score can better predict mortality in critically ill patients. DESIGN: A prospective observational study. SETTING: Five university hospitals in 2016-2018. PATIENTS: Critically ill adult patients who met greater than or equal to two systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria at admission were included, and those who died or were discharged within 48 hours were excluded. INTERVENTIONS: Inflammatory biomarkers including interleukin (interleukin)-6, -8, and -10; tumor necrosis factor-α; C-reactive protein; and procalcitonin were blindly measured daily for 3 days. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score at day 2 according to 28-day mortality was calculated as baseline. Combination models of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score and additional biomarkers were developed using logistic regression, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve calculated in each model was compared with the baseline. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Among 161 patients included in the study, 18 (11.2%) did not survive at day 28. Univariate analysis for each biomarker identified that the interleukin-6 (days 1-3), interleukin-8 (days 0-3), and interleukin-10 (days 1-3) were higher in nonsurvivors than in survivors. Analyses of 28-day mortality prediction by a single biomarker showed interleukin-6, -8, and -10 at days 1-3 had a significant discrimination power, and the interleukin-6 at day 3 had the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.766 [0.656-0.876]). The baseline area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score predicting 28-day mortality was 0.776 (0.672-0.880). The combination model using additional interleukin-6 at day 3 had higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve than baseline (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.844, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve improvement = 0.068 [0.002-0.133]), whereas other biomarkers did not improve accuracy in predicting 28-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Accuracy for 28-day mortality prediction was improved by adding serum interleukin-6 concentration to Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score.

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has drastically changed everyday life worldwide. This study aimed to determine how COVID-19 affected the characteristics and outcomes of patients with severe burn injury by examining a city-wide burn database in Tokyo. Patients and methods: A descriptive study was conducted in 14 burn centers using the Tokyo Burn Unit Association registry from 1999 to 2020. The pandemic started in 2020, while the stay-at-home order lasted from April to May. The demographics, mechanisms, severity, and clinical outcomes were assessed before and during these two time periods. Results: In total, 7061 patients with burn injury were enrolled. During the pandemic, there were less patients during the pandemic than previous years, except for April–May; this decreased toward the end of 2020. There were also more scald/contact burns in the upper extremity, less intended and assault injuries, shorter length of hospital stay, and lower in-hospital mortality. During the stay-at-home order, there was increased incidence of flame burns, inhalation injuries, and in-hospital mortality, as well as higher total body surface area of full-thickness burns. Conclusions: This study described the characteristics of burns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The association between the stay-at-home order and severity of burns should be further examined.

Although several studies on recombinant soluble human thrombomodulin (rhTM) have been reported, the safety/efficacy of rhTM for sepsis-associated disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) after emergency laparotomy remains controversial. We retrospectively reviewed the treatment and clinical characteristics of patients with sepsis-associated DIC who underwent emergency laparotomy between 2012 and 2014 at our institution. In all, 24 patients were treated with rhTM, while the remaining 19 were not. There were no significant differences in the background characteristics of the patients between the two groups, however, the APACHE Ⅱ score, admission rate to the intensive care unit, and respiratory utilization were higher in the cases treated with rhTM (p=0.02, p<0.001, and p=0.004, respectively). There was no significant association between rhTM use, mortality and complications including postoperative hemorrhage. The administration rate of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) was lower in the group that was treated with rhTM (p=0.02). This study demonstrates that rhTM may be used safely, even after emergency laparotomy, and may be associated with a reduced amount of FFP transfusion.

十二指腸憩室症自体は結腸憩室に次ぐ頻度で珍しい疾患ではないとされているが、報告例の多くが下行脚または傍乳頭憩室であり、水平脚の報告は限定される。いずれの部位でも無症状で特別な治療を要することは少なく経過観察されることが多いが、有症状時には部位によって鑑別に苦慮することがある。十二指腸後腹膜穿通と誤認した十二指腸水平脚憩室症の1例を経験したため、文献的考察を加えて報告する。症例は50歳代の女性。突然発症した腹痛を主訴に前医に救急搬送され十二指腸後腹膜穿通の診断にて入院となった。しかし、緊急手術となった際に対応が不能とのことで翌日に当院へ転院となった。来院後、消化性潰瘍による十二指腸後腹膜穿通と診断したが、病変は限局していたため非手術的に加療を開始した。臨床経過は順調に経過したが、2週間経過しても消化管造影にて十二指腸壁外への造影剤漏出と考えられる所見が消失せず、十二指腸後腹膜穿通ではない可能性を強く疑った。以前に画像検査を施行した医療機関にCTデータの送付を依頼し確認したところ、その時から十二指腸後面に見える部分にガス像を認めており、十二指腸憩室症と診断できた。十二指腸水平脚部の憩室は比較的稀であるが、有症状時には後腹膜穿通と鑑別が困難で、侵襲的処置が選択されてしまう可能性があり注意を要する。(著者抄録)