Survival in trauma victims with pulmonary contusion

The author evaluated 203 consecutive patients with severe chest trauma admitted to the trauma center between 1985 and 1989. The goal was to identify risk factors that play a significant role in mortality of patients with pulmonary contusion. There were 160 men and 43 women. The average was 33 years (range 2 to 92 years); 178 patients were younger than 60 years and 25 were older. There were 183 motor vehicle or motorcycle accidents, five gun shot wounds, one stab wound, five falls from height, three industrial accidents, one altercation, and five other undetermined causes. One hundred and fifty-nine patients survived; 44 died (22%). Their injury severity scores averaged 27 (range 9 to 59) for the survivors and 43.5 (range 17 to 75) for the nonsurvivors. Fifty-seven per cent of the patients required mechanical ventilation. The average time on the ventilator was 4.4 days (range 1 to 47 days) for the survivors and 14.2 days for the nonsurvivors (range 1 to 126 days). Of the patients less than 60 years old, 34 (20%) died, but 10 (40%) of the 25 patients older than 60 years died. Average blood loss was 1,047 cc (range 0 to 14,300 cc), but the difference was not statistically significant between survivors and nonsurvivors in the authors' series. Injuries to the central nervous system were present in 80 (40%) of the patients and were associated with death in 30 (68%) of the cases. Age, severity of injury, associated head trauma, and shock were the most important factors affecting survival in the authors' patients with pulmonary contusion.