@article{ref1,
title="Self harm is an independent predictor of mortality in trauma and burns patients admitted to ICU",
journal="Injury",
year="2012",
author="Varley, James and Pilcher, David and Butt, Warwick and Cameron, Peter",
volume="43",
number="9",
pages="1562-1565",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Patients with mental illness or depression may sustain self-inflicted injuries that require admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It is unknown whether the intent of injury leads to a greater likelihood of dying over and above the severity of the initial injury. Given the economic and societal burden of injury of self-harm, we designed this study to compare hospital outcomes of intentionally injured patients presenting to a tertiary ICU compared to unintentional injuries. METHODS: The regional trauma database was interrogated to produce two datasets that included all adult trauma patients admitted to the Alfred Intensive Care Unit between 01/07/2002 and 30/06/2007. The first included patients that sustained intentional injuries, the second comprised un-intentional injuries and acted as a control group. Logistic regression was used to model factors associated with mortality. RESULTS: Intentionally injured patients made up 4.17% of the total burns, blunt and penetrating trauma admissions to the Alfred ICU over the five-year study period. There was a trend towards higher mortality overall and in all subgroups of patients with intentional injuries when compared to those with un-intentional mechanisms of injury. After adjusting for injury severity and age, a mechanism of injury involving intentional injury was independently associated with a doubling of the odds of death. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first paper in the literature to describe an increased the risk of death within a group of patients admitted to a trauma and burns ICU following deliberate self-harm.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0020-1383",
doi="10.1016/j.injury.2011.06.005",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2011.06.005"
}