TY - JOUR PY - 2016// TI - The relationship between blood alcohol concentration and injury severity in patients admitted to the hospital emergency department after a motor vehicle accident JO - Eurasian journal of emergency medicine A1 - Dogan, Serkan A1 - Acar, Nurdan A1 - Cevik, Arif Alper A1 - Ozakin, Engin A1 - Baloglu Kaya, Filiz A1 - Arslantas, Didem SP - 121 EP - 125 VL - 15 IS - 3 N2 - AIM: The aim of our study is to establish the point at which a high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in patients admitted to a hospital's emergency department (ED) after an automobile accident can increase the severity of the injury and influence the survival and death rates.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our study is a prospective performed on patients ≥18 years of age admitted to the ED for in-car road accidents (ICRA) between September 15, 2011 and September 14, 201214-09-2012. Information such as demographic features, trauma score systems, BACs, hospital charges, discharge, hospitalization, and death of the patients was recorded.

RESULTS: The BACs of 52 out of a total of 324 patients were determined to be above normal limits (50 mg/dL). The clinical condition of patients with a BAC above normal limits was relatively worse (42.9%) than those with a BAC within normal limits (p<0.05). The BAC was above normal limits for 30.0% of the hospitalized patients, for 50% of surgical patients, and for 45.5% of deceased patients.

CONCLUSION: This study determined that there is a relationship between a high BAC and injury severity for patients admitted to the ED for ICRA and that a high BAC negatively affects the survival rate and increases the death rate in emergency medicine. Keywords: Blood alcohol concentration, in-car road accident, injury severity, emergency unit

Language: en

LA - en SN - 2149-5807 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5152/eajem.2016.64936 ID - ref1 ER -