The Trauma Pro

In my previous post, I reviewed some of the basics of Morrel-Lavallee lesions. In this one, I’ll discuss a very recently published paper that explores early versus late management.

Although these lesions are relatively common after unprotected blunt trauma (e.g., motorcycle crashes), there has not been a lot of definitive literature published. The Morrel-Lavallee study...

Anyone who takes care of blunt trauma has seen the Morel-Lavallee lesion (M-L). Here’s an obvious one because it’s acute:

The M-L lesion is essentially a closed degloving injury in which the skin remains intact. The subcutaneous tissue is sheared off of the underlying fascia, and typically blood accumulates in the potential space that is created. This picture shows a ...

The practice of medicine steadily advances, and trauma surgery is no exception. For centuries, operative management of trauma has entailed open procedures. Laparoscopic equipment was developed about 100 years ago, and a short procedure described as “coelioscopy” was the first reported case used to identify hemoperitoneum in 1925. Occasional case reports surfaced over the foll...

One metric in the TQIP program that most U.S. trauma centers subscribe to measures time to hip fracture fixation. Why is this important? When someone (usually an older adult) falls and breaks their hip, their mobility immediately drops to a much more sedentary level. We know this has an immediate impact on pulmonary function and increases pulmonary risk from simple things lik...

Several decades ago, I took care of a patient who posed an interesting challenge. He had been involved in an industrial explosion and had sustained severe trauma to his face. Although he was able to speak and breathe, he had a moderate amount of bleeding and was having some trouble keeping his airway clear.

Everyone frets about getting an airway in patients who have...