Israel Medical Association Journal

Background: Although the home is perceived to be a safe haven, it is a scene of numerous injuries.

Objectives: To characterize home injury in Israel, the victims, injury circumstances and outcomes, and to identify groups at high risk for injury in order to focus future interventions and thus effectively prevent these injuries and their associated hospitalizations.

Methods: We analyzed 5 year records (1997–2001) from the National Trauma Registry of all patients arriving at eight trauma centers following home injury and admitted to hospital, transferred to another medical center or died in the emergency department.

Results: The study group included 26,921 patients, constituting 34% of all unintentional hospitalized trauma patients. Twenty-seven percent were children (0–4 years) and 37% were elderly (≥ 65 years) – the two age groups whose home injury accounted for most of the trauma injuries. Among children more boys (59%) than girls (41%) were injured, but the opposite was true for the elderly (30% males and 70% females). The share of females among the home-injured increased with age. Falls caused 79% of all home injuries (97% among the elderly) and burns 9%, increasing to 18% among children (0–4 years). Among non-Jewish home-injured patients, infants predominated (50% compared to 20% among Jews). Moderate to critical injuries amounted for 42%, with 38% of the home injured and 60% of the elderly requiring surgery. The clinical and economic consequences of home injuries differed according to the type of injury, with burns carrying the heaviest toll of prolonged intensive care and hospital stay. Overall, hospital stay averaged 6.2 days per patient (median 3 days).

Conclusions: Falls among the elderly, burns among children, and a high prevalence of hospitalization among non-Jewish children define groups at high risk for home injuries. Prevention programs should be based on these findings and should focus on the more vulnerable groups.

Background: The ear is the most frequent organ affected during an explosion. Recognition of possible damage to its auditory and vestibular components, and particularly the recovery time of the incurred damage, may help in planning the optimal treatment strategies for the otologic manifestations of blast injury and preventing deleterious consequences.   

Objective: To report the results of the oto-vestibular initial evaluation and follow-up of 17 survivors of a suicidal terrorist attack on a municipal bus.

Methods: These 17 patients underwent periodic ear inspections and pure tone audiometry for 6 months. Balance studies, consisting of electronystagmography (ENG) and computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) were performed at the first time possible.

Results: Complaints of earache, aural fullness and tinnitus resolved, whereas dizziness persisted in most of the patients. By the end of the follow-up, 15 (55.6%) of the eardrum perforations had healed spontaneously. Hearing impairment was detected in 33 of the 34 tested ears. Recovery of hearing was complete in 6 ears and partial in another 11. ENG and CDP were performed in 13 patients: 5 had abnormal results on CDP while the ENG was normal in all the patients. The vertigo in seven patients resolved in only one patient who was free of symptoms 1 month after the explosion.

Conclusion:  Exposure to a high powered explosion in a confined space may result in severe auditory and vestibular damage. Awareness of these possible ear injuries may prevent many of the deleterious consequences of such injuries.
 

The chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard affects primarily the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. Of these, ocular injury is the most immediate and distressing. Learning to recognize ocular injury enables the treating physician to provide early and suitable treatment, which will reduce complications and allow the victim a rapid recovery.

Background: As air travel increases and the number of commercial and non-commercial flights rises so does the number of aircraft accidents. The improved safety standards of the aviation industry result in a growing number of survivors of aircraft crashes, but there are no management guidelines for the treatment of aircraft crash survivors.

Objectives: To present our experience in treating five survivors of a light aircraft crash that occurred in August 1995 near Jerusalem.

Results: All five survivors sustained vertebral column injuries, which was the only injury in most of the survivors. We discuss the mechanism of injury.

Conclusions: Investigation of injuries’ pattern in survivors of aircraft crash is important for establishing management protocols in trauma centers.
 

Background: Trauma is viewed by many as a global problem. The phenomenon of similar outcomes within differing healthcare delivery systems can illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of various trauma systems as well as the effects of these characteristics on patient outcome.

Objectives: To compare and contrast demographic and injury characteristics as well as patient outcomes of two urban/suburban trauma centers, one in Israel and the other in the United States.

Methods: Study data were obtained from the trauma registries of two trauma centers. Demographic variables, injury characteristics and outcomes were compared statistically between registries.

Results: Significant differences between the registries were found in demographic variables (age), injury characteristics (Injury Severity Score and mechanism of injury), and outcome (mortality and length of stay). Age and Injury Severity Score were found to be significant predictors of outcome in both registries. The Glasgow Coma Score was found to contribute to patient outcomes more than the ISS[1]. Differences were found in the relative impact of injury and demographic factors on outcomes between the registries. After including the influence of these factors on patient outcomes, significant differences still remained between the outcomes of the trauma centers.

Conclusions: Despite possible explanations for these differences, true comparisons between centers are problematic.

_______________________________

Background: The exact value of follow-up ultrasonogra­phy and computed tomography in the non-operative manage­ment of blunt splenic injuries is not yet defined. Although follow-up studies have been recommended to detect possible complications of the initial injury, evidence shows that routine follow-up CT scans usually do not affect management of these patients.

Objective: To determine whether follow-up imaging influences the management of patients with blunt splenic injury.

Methods: Between 1995 and 1999, 155 trauma patients were admitted with splenic trauma to a major trauma center. Excluded from the study were trauma patients with penetrating injuries, children, and those who underwent immediate laparotomy due to hemodynamic instability or associated injuries. The remaining trauma patients were managed conservatively. Splenic injury was suspected by focused abdominal sonography for trauma, upon admission, and confirmed by CT scan. The severity of splenic injury was graded from I to V. The clinical outcome was obtained from medical records.

Results: We identified 32 adult patients (27 males and 5 females) with blunt splenic injuries who were managed non-operatively. In two patients it was not successful, and splenectomy was performed because of hemodynamic dete­rioration. The remaining 30 stable patients were divided into two groups: those who had only the initial ultrasound and CT scan with no follow-up studies (n= 8), and those who under­went repeat follow-up ultrasound or CT scan studies (n = 22). The severity of injury was similar in both groups. In the second group follow-up studies showed normal spleens in 2 patients, improvement in 11, no change in 8, and deterioration in one. All patients in both groups were managed successfully with good clinical outcome.

Conclusion: In the present series the follow-up radiologi­cal studies did not affect patient management. Follow-up imaging can be omitted in clinically stable patients with blunt splenic trauma grade I-III.
 

Background: Israel lacks a systematic surveillance of sports injuries, and knowledge of risk factors and specific patterns of injury is inadequate. In order to promote prevention of sports-related injuries, the magnitude of the problem must first be identified and the incidence and severity of sports injuries described.

Objective: To conduct a survey on previous sports injuries among a sample of Israeli athletes.

Methods: A convenience sample of Israeli amateur athletes participating in the 1997 15th Maccabiah Games was randomly selected. The study group answered an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that included sociodemographic data, and information regarding their sports activity and sports-related injuries that had occurred during the previous 2 years.

Results: The study group, aged 12-3 years (median age 21), comprised 301 consenting athletes in 28 different sports. Of these athletes 56.1% reported having had at least one injury. Most injuries (75.6%) involved the upper and lower extremities, and 37.8% of the injured sportsmen had received medical attention from a physician. Half of the athletes participated in contact sports - both collision and limited impact. This group had a much greater proportion of reported injuries in all age groups.

Conclusion: Surveillance of sports injuries should be expanded in order to develop appropriate prevention programs in Israel.