Abstract:
Objective: Advanced Trauma Life Support guidelines recommend only 1 L of intravenous (IV) crystalloid before transitioning to blood products. We sought to determine if receiving >1 L of IV crystalloid during the initial resuscitation is associated with worse outcomes. We also sought to determine if receiving no crystalloids is associated with better outcomes.
Methods: We performed a single center retrospective study using trauma registry data, which was supplemented by manual chart review. We only included patients who had an initial heart rate ≥ 100 beats/min or a systolic blood pressure ≤ 90 mmHg. For each patient, we determined the total amount of IV crystalloid administered in the first 3 h after arrival to the hospital plus prehospital crystalloid. We performed multivariate regression analyses to determine if there is an association between the administration of >1 L of crystalloids or no crystalloids with in-hospital mortality, hospital length of stay (LOS), or packed red blood cells (PRBCs) transfused.
Results: Between January 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019, there were 878 who met criteria for enrollment. Among those, 55.0% received ≤1 L of IV crystalloids, and 45.0% received >1 L. Multivariate analyses showed no significant association between receiving >1 L and mortality (p = 0.61) or PRBCs transfused (p = 0.29), but patients who received >1 L had longer hospital LOS (p = 0.04). We found no association between receiving no crystalloids and mortality, PRBCs transfused, or LOS.
Conclusion: On a multivariate analysis of trauma patients, we did not find an association between the administration of >1 L of IV crystalloid and in-hospital mortality or the volume of PRBCs transfused. However, receiving >1 L of crystalloids was associated with a longer hospital LOS. We found no benefit to completely withholding crystalloids.
Reference:
Zitek T, Ataya R, Farino L, Mohammed S, Miller G. Is the use of greater than 1 L of intravenous crystalloids associated with worse outcomes in trauma patients? Am J Emerg Med. 2020 Dec 10;40:32-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2020.12.013. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33340875.