November 2015, episode 47

In the wake of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma suggesting patient outcome is the same for Level I and Level II trauma centers, I believe a timely message is report by Dr. Jan Jansen from the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and colleagues throughout Scotland who describe their comprehensive geospatial analysis of greater than 80,000 trauma patients over a year. Dr. Samuel Ross and associates from the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, provide insight into the impact of normal saline versus Ringer’s lactate on resuscitation endpoints for hemorrhagic shock.   Another interesting resuscitation paper was by Dr. Martin Ponschab et al from the Trauma Research Center in Salzburg. Dr. Elizabeth Benjamin and colleagues from the LA County Medical Center, investigate the risk of deep organ space infection after emergent bowel resection and anastomosis. The second paper is by Dr. Daniel Yeh et al from the Massachusetts General Hospital who focus on the clinical implications of gangrenous cholecystitis.