Correlation between the Injury Site and Trauma Mechanism in Severely Injured Patients with Blunt Trauma

Young Un Choi; Sung Woo Jang; Su Hyun Kim; Ji Wool Ko; Myoung Jun Kim; Hongjin Shim; Jae Hun Han; Ji Hye Lim; Kwangmin Kim

doi:10.1155/2022/8372012

Correlation between the Injury Site and Trauma Mechanism in Severely Injured Patients with Blunt Trauma

Emerg Med Int. 2022 May 24:2022:8372012. doi: 10.1155/2022/8372012. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Young Un Choi^{1

2

3}, Sung Woo Jang^{1

2

3}, Su Hyun Kim², Ji Wool Ko^{1

2

3}, Myoung Jun Kim^{1

2

3}, Hongjin Shim^{1

2

3}, Jae Hun Han⁴, Ji Hye Lim⁴, Kwangmin Kim^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju 26426, Republic of Korea.
² Trauma Center, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Wonju 26426, Republic of Korea.
³ Wonju Severance Trauma Research Group, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju 26426, Republic of Korea.
⁴ National Health Big Data Clinical Research Institute, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju 26426, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Background: In patients with severe injury, predicting the injury site without using advanced diagnostic modalities can help formulate a diagnosis and treatment plan based on the suspected injury site.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the correlation between the injury site and trauma mechanism in severely injured patients with blunt trauma.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics-including age, sex, date of emergency room (ER) visit, time of injury, trauma mechanism (car accident, motorcycle accident, bicycle accident, pedestrian accident, fall, slipping and rolling down, crush injury, assault, and others), final diagnosis, injury severity score, abbreviated injury scale (AIS) score, and injury site-of 1,245 patients in a tertiary trauma center.

Results: There was a strong correlation between certain injury sites and specific trauma mechanisms. In particular, most trauma mechanisms were associated with injury to the head and neck, as well as the chest, with a combined frequency of >40.0%. Moreover, when using one-way analysis of variance and Bonferroni's post hoc tests, there were significant differences in AIS scores 1, 3, 4, and 5 for each trauma mechanism.

Conclusion: Generally, when patients with severe injury present to the ER, the injury site can be predicted upon initial assessment based on the trauma mechanism. Based on our study, the injury site predicted by a specific mechanism should be checked repeatedly and additionally through physical examination and imaging tools. This can reduce misdiagnosis and help with accurate diagnosis and treatment.