Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2025
Integrated Compensatory Responses in a Human Model of Hemorrhage
Published on: November 20, 2016
A trauma expert consensus: Capabilities are required early to improve survivability from traumatic injury
Jennifer M Gurney1, Russ S Kotwal, John B Holcomb
1From the Joint Trauma System (J.M.G., R.S.K., S.J., B.J.S., J.W., H.M., A.J.R.), Defense Health Agency, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Department of Surgery (J.M.G., S.S., S.J., E.M.), Department of Military and Emergency Medicine (R.S.K., E.M.), and Department of Pathology (A.J.R., E.M.), Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland; Department of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (J.B.H.), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; The Geneva Foundation (A.M.S.), US Army Institute of Surgical Research, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston; Department of Surgery, Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (B.E.), University of Texas Health San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas; Joint Medical Unit (M.S.), Joint Special Operations Command, United States Special Operations Command, Fort Liberty, North Carolina; San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium (M.S.), Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Defense Health Agency (S.J., S.S.), Colorado Trauma Medical Director, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Department of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (K.G.), Cooper University Medical Center, Camden, New Jersey; HNL Lab Medicine (E.M.), Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (W.W., A.J.R.), Defense Health Agency, Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.
Background:
Mortality reviews examine US military fatalities resulting from traumatic injuries during combat operations. These reviews are essential to the evolution of the military trauma system to improve individual, unit, and system-level trauma care delivery and inform trauma system protocols and guidelines. This study identifies specific prehospital and hospital interventions with the potential to provide survival benefits.
Methods:
US Special Operations Command fatalities with battle injuries deemed potentially survivable (2001-2021) were extracted from previous mortality reviews. A military trauma review panel consisting of trauma surgeons, forensic pathologists, and prehospital and emergency medicine specialists conducted a methodical review to identify prehospital, hospital, and resuscitation interventions (e.g., laparotomy, blood transfusion) with the potential to have provided a survival benefit.
Results:
Of 388 US Special Operations Command battle-injured fatalities, 100 were deemed potentially survivable. Of these (median age, 29 years; all male), 76.0% were injured in Afghanistan, and 75% died prehospital. Gunshot wounds were in 62.0%, followed by blast injury (37%), and blunt force injury (1.0%). Most had a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale severity classified as 4 (severe) (55.0%) and 5 (critical) (41.0%). The panel recommended 433 interventions (prehospital, 188; hospital, 315). The most recommended prehospital intervention was blood transfusion (95%), followed by finger/tube thoracostomy (47%). The most common hospital recommendations were thoracotomy and definitive vascular repair. Whole blood transfusion was assessed for each fatality: 74% would have required ≥10 U of blood, 20% would have required 5 to 10 U, 1% would have required 1 to 4 U, and 5% would not have required blood products to impact survival. Five may have benefited from a prehospital laparotomy.
Conclusion:
This study systematically identified capabilities needed to provide a survival benefit and examined interventions needed to inform trauma system efforts along the continuum of care. The determination was that blood transfusion and massive transfusion shortly after traumatic injury would impact survival the most.
Level Of Evidence:
Prognostic and Epidemiological; Level V.
More Related Videos
04:02Author Spotlight: Developing Precise and Clinically Relevant Models for Studying Secondary Degeneration in Traumatic Optic Neuropathy
Published on: November 29, 2024
11:28A Coupled Experiment-finite Element Modeling Methodology for Assessing High Strain Rate Mechanical Response of Soft Biomaterials
Published on: May 18, 2015
Related Concept Videos
01:26Flail Chest-II
Assessment:
1. Clinical Evaluation:
History:
01:20Traumatic Memory