Liver trauma usually means management of multiple injuries: analysis of 78 patients.

The liver is the second most traumatized organ in the abdominal cavity. The authors present a retrospective analysis of a group of 78 patients treated for this injury at one institution. In this group, there were 5 (6.41%) penetrating and 73 (93.59%) blunt trauma injuries. The mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) of the group was 31.6. Isolated liver trauma occurred in only three (3.84%) cases. At the same time, chest injury occurred in 89.84%, head injury occurred in 74.64%, limb injury occurred in 32.05%, and spinal or pelvic injury occurred in 26.92% of patients. Trauma to other intra-abdominal organs was found in 82.97% of patients, and surgical intervention was necessary in 51.06%. The routine use of helical computed tomography with contrast showed a sensitivity of 88.76% and 95.50%, respectively. Liver bleeding resulted in three (3.84%) patient deaths. Overall mortality was 29.48%. The mean period of hospitalization on the intensive care unit was 27.42 days. At present, liver trauma cannot be separated from multiple injuries; morbidity and mortality depend more on the affiliated trauma than on specific liver injury.

A humanitarian mission in southern Iraq: utilization of the 7th Field Hospital of the Army of the Czech Republic--a report on its medical activities and working conditions.

Between April 24 and September 18, 2003, a total of 7,099 outpatient treatments were performed. Between June 3 and September 18, 2003, a total of 124 patients were surgically treated and 209 patients were hospitalized; the hospital recorded 1,239 bed-days, 137 of them in the intensive care unit. A total of 924 X-ray and ultrasound examinations were performed, as well as 10,014 laboratory tests. Local inhabitants accounted for 90.5% of the patients. In their practice, the doctors encountered a very wide spectrum of surgical and nonsurgical diagnoses. Part of the work was to support humanitarian activities, with supplies of humanitarian material, selection of children for specialized cardiosurgical treatment in the Czech Republic, and blood donations. Work in that unstable region was significantly complicated by the extreme climate and the high security risk.