Shu-Hui Peng
Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taiwan
Title: The association of alcohol intoxication and trauma injury severity and medical expenditure in adults
Biography
Biography: Shu-Hui Peng
Abstract
Alcohol-related trauma, which including drunk driving, fighting or a fall after drinking alcohol, is the main reason for sustaining trauma injury. To provide objective evidences and more complete therapeutic algorithm, this study was designed to investigate the relationship of alcohol-related trauma and the injury severity as well as medical expenses in adults. A retrospective study of the medical records and registered data in Trauma Registry System from 2009 to 2014 was performed at a medical center in southern Taiwan. The patients whose blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level≧50mg/dl was considered as alcohol intoxication group while those whose BAC level less than 50mg/dl and those who were not required for an alcohol test were deemed as patients without alcohol intoxication group. Of the total 11,033 adult patients, 929 patients with BAC (+) and 10,104 patients with BAC (–) were enrolled in this study. atients with alcohol intoxication had significantly higher rates of head/neck injury, face injury, thoracic injury, and abdomen injury, lower Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score (12.6±3.7 vs. 14.5±1.9, p＜0.001), higher injury severity score (30.8±17.8 vs. 7.7±6.5, p＜0.001), higher short-term mortality (3.6% vs. 1.2%, p＜0.001), longer hospital stay (11.4 days vs. 9.1 days, p＜0.001), and higher proportion of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) (35.4% vs. 15.0%, p＜0.001) than those without alcohol intoxication. Alcohol-related trauma is associated to a higher injury severity and increase the cost of medical expenses.