Analysis of relative risk factors for crush injury and crush syndrome in the patients after Wenchuan earthquake

Objective Respectively cohort study to develop predicitive factors based on clinical date for crush injury patients in the Wenchuan earthquake(May 21,2008).Methods Sixty-six crash injuried patients were admitted to our hospital after Wenchuan earthquake.The medical records of those patients were retrospectively analyzed. Some risk factors were assessed for the outcome of relating crush syndrome.Risk factors for estimating the risk of crush syndrome including patients'characteristics,time for rescue,number of in jured limbs,abnormal urine color,and blood laboratory date including potassium,peak serum ereatine kinase.Results No patient died.The major associated injuries were in the low extremities and upper extremities.48 patients developed acute renal failure with increased concentrations of serum creatinine had underwent haemodialysis.Hyperkalaemia Was seen in 9 patients and four of them underwent haemodialysis.The pulse rate,delayed rescue,and abnormal urine color the most informative predictors of crush syndrome and renal failure,which relate directly to the pathophysiology of the crush in jury.The other major risk factors including blood laboratory date such as potassium,peak serum creatine kinase.Conclusion Our findings may be useful to other disaster experts for distinguishing earthquake victime at high risk of severe crush syndrome from those at lower risk.Application of thOse risk factors to estimating the risk of syndrome may allow reliefworkers to better utilize limited medical and transportation resources in the after math of disaster Key words: Natyral disasters; Crush syndrome; Risk factors; Forecasting