TY - JOUR PY - 2022// TI - Application of a near-infrared spectroscope by an extreme forward medical team for the triage of casualties with traumatic brain injury JO - Military medicine A1 - Christophe, Joubert A1 - Aurore, Sellier A1 - Nathan, Beucler A1 - Nicolas, Desse A1 - Jean-Marc, Delmas A1 - Julien, Bordes A1 - Renaud, Dulou A1 - Arnaud, Dagain SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - BACKGROUND: During deployment of military medical teams similarly to prehospital practice, without immediate computed tomography scan access, identifying patients requiring neuro-specific care to manage pragmatic triage proves crucial. We assessed the contribution of this portable near-infrared spectroscope (NIRS) handheld device, Infrascanner Model 2000 (InfraScan Inc.; Philadelphia, PA), to screen patients suspected to require specific neurosurgical care.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This single-center retrospective analysis was based on the data from the medical records of the traumatic brain injured patients. We analyzed all the patients strictly over 18 years old presenting a clinical history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) < 15.

RESULTS: Thirty-seven medical records of patients admitted for TBI met the inclusion criteria for our analysis. The median GCS was 9 [3-14]. Eight patients (21.6%) underwent neurosurgery and 25 (67.6%) required intensive care unit (ICU) admission, after initial assessment and resuscitation. The NIRS was the most sensible to detect intracranial hematoma (n = 21), intracranial hematoma leading to surgery (n = 8), and intracranial hematoma leading to admission in ICU (n = 25). Its negative predictive value was 100% regarding hematomas leading to surgery. False-positive results were encountered in 10 cases (27.0%). Excluding cases harboring confounding extracranial hematomas, parietal area was still the most represented (n = 3).

CONCLUSION: The NIRS was relevant to detect hematoma leading to prompt surgery in our study. The lack of specificity in a nonselected cohort of patients underlines the need to associate simple clinical feature such as neurological deficit and NIRS results to perform rational triage.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0026-4075 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usac306 ID - ref1 ER -