Epidemiology and Impact of Thoracic Trauma on the Mortality of Multi-trauma Patients: Results From a French Road Trauma Registry 1997-2016

Thoracic trauma is the third most common cause of death in multi-trauma patients. One of the most frequent mechanism is road traffic accident (RTA). The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of severe (abbreviated injury scale, AIS≥3) injuries in each body region on the mortality of multi-trauma patients with a particular attention to thoracic trauma. We also described the epidemiology and injury pattern of these patients when presenting with at least one AIS ≥2 thoracic injury (AISThorax≥2). Patients included in the Rhône RTA registry between 1997 and 2016, with at least one AIS ≥2 injury in any body region were included. Two subgroups were defined according to whether patients presented at least one AISThorax≥2 injury or not. Multivariate regression analysis with mortality as outcome was performed. A total of 46,526 patients had at least one AIS≥2 injury, among them 6,382 (13.7%) had at least one AISThorax≥2 injury. Severe thoracic injuries (OR=12.2, 95%CI [8.4;17.7]) were strongly associated with death, second to severe head injuries were (OR=26.8, 95%CI [20.4;35.2]). Chest wall injuries were the most frequent thoracic injury (62.1%, n=5,419) and 52.4% of these were multiple rib fractures. Severe thoracic injury is a priority in multi-trauma patients; both in the detection but also in the management.