Structure of hospital lethality in polytrauma and ways to reduce it

Case histories of 276 patients and autopsy protocols for patients who had died of polytrauma in 2002-2003 were analyzed. It was found that hospital polytrauma lethality is characterized by two peaks: within the first 24 hours after trauma (34.3% of the victims) and on day 4 and later after polytrauma (53.2%). Acute blood loss and shock are the cause of early lethality. In the period from 1 to 3 days after trauma the main causes of death are edema and dislocation of the brain in patients with dominating craniocerebral injury. Late mortality (on day 4 and later) is associated with infectious complications. The overall lethality after polytrauma decreased from 26-30% to 18.5-18.9% for the recent 10 years due to shortening of presurgical period, "cell-saver" use, improvement of anesthetic and intensive care management, mini-invasive osteosynthesis, timely prevention and treatment of brain edema, preventive use of last generation antibiotics and immune correction.