Abstract:

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate multiple trauma patients hospitalized in intensive care unit (ICU) of an emergency department at a university hospital. Methods: The study was performed between January 2006 and January 2009 with 138 patients in the emergency intensive care unit. Those patients who die within 6 hours after trauma and the patients with chronic renal failure, chronic liver failure, chronic heart failure and metastatic cancers were excluded to this study. Trauma etiology, duration of intensive care and mechanical ventilation, support therapies, trauma scores and mortality rates were determined. The data was evaluated by statistical methods. Results: The average age of the patients was 31±21.8 (range 1-80) years. Of these patients, 112 (81. 2%) were male and 26 (18.8%) were female. The most common etiologies of multitrauma were car occupant's accidents (40.6%) and pedestrian's accidents (37%). Mean length of stay at mechanical ventilation and length of stay in ICU were 2.2 days (0-30 days) and 5.3 days (1-30 days), respectively. Totally 56 (43.5%) patients were ventilated mechanically, 34 (26.4%) patients received nutritional support and 22 (14.5%) were given inotropic agents. The mortality rate of these papatients was 50%, 44.1% and 77.7% respectively. The multitrauma patients, who mechanically ventilated, supported by inotropic and nutritional therapy had higher mortality rates than other patients. Conclusion: The most common cause of multitrauma injuries were motor vehicle accidents, especially for young goods. Trauma scores at admission, complications related to mechanical ventilation, inotropic and nutritional support therapies affected to morbidity and mortality in ICU trauma centers.

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