Analysis on the treatment of crush syndrome complicated in earthquake injury / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the risk factors and treatment of crush syndrome comlicated in earth-quake injury. Method The demographics and epidemiological characteristics, clinical treatment and the outcome of 35 cases with crush syndrome were reviewed and analyzed.The 35 patients were among 325 victims of "5·12" Wenchuan earthquake, who were admitted in Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu. Results Of 35 pa-tients with crush syndrome, 7 cases injured at forearm, 25 cases injured at cruse, and 3 cases injured at palm,and 3 cases were complicated with acute renal failure. The time from the occurrence of injury to transporting patients into the hospital was 6～92 hours, with mean time 49.3 hours. All the 35 patients had their wound cut open for de-compression,and 6 cases were cured, 2 had dysfunction, and 27 underwent amputation. Young patients under 14 years old had higher rate (25.8%) of crush syndrome than elder patients of 14～59 years old with rate of 8.0%.And patients admitted into hospital later (over 48 hour after injury) had higher incidence of crush syndrome (31.0 %) than those admitted earlier within 48 hours after injury (3.5 %). Conchusions Attaching great impor-tance to crush syndrome after earthquake injury, early diagnosis and treatment, and timely and complete surgical decompression are key points to the successful treatment and prevention of crush syndrome complicated in earth-quake injury. Because the longer interval between injury and rescue, delayed diagnosis and treatment, and the younger age of patients are all the risk factors of crush syndrome.