
Major Haemorrhage in Trauma
Major Haemorrhage in Trauma
The LITFL Critical Care Compendium is a comprehensive collection of pages concisely covering the core topics and controversies of critical care.

Major Haemorrhage in Trauma

Most genitourinary injuries are not immediately life-threatening. Renal pedicle injury can lead to life-threatening hemorrhage and renal ischemia

Splenic trauma may result from blunt or penetrating abdominal injury. The spleen is the most commonly injured organ in blunt abdominal trauma

Diaphragmatic injury can be a challenging diagnosis and is missed on imaging about 50% of the time. Comprises 0.8 to 8% of all closed blunt trauma and penetrating trauma case combined

Pelvic fractures are important in critical care because they are associated with: High energy mechanisms; Major haemorrhage; Other major injuries; and High morbidity and mortality

Liver trauma may result from blunt or penetrating abdominal injury. The liver is the most commonly injured organ in penetrating abdominal trauma

There are various systems for classification, these are the 2 most often used: Tile classification and the Young-Burgess classification

Pelvic Arterial Injury: potentially lethal complication of pelvic trauma; more common that previously reported: >10%

Pre-peritoneal packing is a method of directly packing the retroperitoneum without the need for a laparotomy

Blunt Cardiac Injury: spectrum from asymptomatic with minor enzyme rises to fulminant cardiac failure

Chest trauma is very painful as rest is not possible, pain is experienced with every breath. A multi-modal approach ideal with MDT involvement (ICU, anaesthesia and pain)

Pelvic Trauma: Angiography and Embolisation. In centers with interventional radiology capability immediately available these patients may be taken to the angiography suite for embolization