Various clinical aspects of alcohol consumption in trauma patients

The aim of the study was the evaluation of alcohol consumption pattern, clinical outcome of alcohol misuse patients admitted to traumatology ward as well as estimation of usage of brief intervention strategy. The analyzed group consisted of 137 patients (49 females and 88 males) aged from 17 to 95 (mean 47.8 +/- 21.3) years hospitalized in 2004. All the patients were asked to complete the AUDIT and CAGE tests and were divided into groups according to alcohol consumption. There were analyzed alcohol consumption patterns, patient's medical history and also diagnosis of alcohol misuse. Almost half of the men (45.5%) hospitalized in the traumatology ward had been drinking in hazardous pattern in comparison with 4.1% of women. The most numerous population in this cohort were patients < 35-year-old (38.1%). Both, the group of patients with hazardous alcohol consumption (HAC) (>7 pts. according to AUDIT) and the group of alcohol addicted patients (>1 pts according to CAGE) were mainly represented by males. The anamnesis concerning the alcohol consumption was conducted by the surgeons in only 1 (0.7%) case, but without using any tests. Brief intervention was not used even among those patients who were drunk on admission. There were 45.5% of hazardous drinking males and 4.1% of females among patients admitted to the traumatology ward. None of the surgeons used the screening test to evaluate the drinking misuse of the patients. The brief intervention was not used by the medical staff despite its low cost and high effectiveness.