Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on injury prevalence and pattern in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Region: a multicenter study by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, Washington, DC.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects on healthcare systems and society with resultant impact on trauma systems worldwide. This study evaluates the impact the pandemic has had in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Region as compared with similar months in 2019.

Design: A retrospective multicenter study of all adult trauma centers in the Washington, DC region was conducted using trauma registry data between January 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020.

Extremity Vascular Injury Management: Good Outcomes Using Selective Referral to Vascular Surgeons.

Revascularization after extremity vascular injury has long been considered an important skill among trauma surgeons. Increasingly, some trauma surgeons defer vascular repair in response to training or practice patterns. This study was designed to document results of extremity revascularization surgery to evaluate trauma surgeon outcomes and judicious referral of more complex injuries to vascular surgeons (VAS).

Postoperative neuromuscular blocker use is associated with higher primary fascial closure rates after damage control laparotomy.

Background: Failure to achieve fascial primary closure after damage control laparotomy (DCL) is associated with increased morbidity, higher healthcare expenditures, and a reduction in quality of life. The use of neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBA) to facilitate closure remains controversial and poorly studied. The purpose of this study was to determine whether exposure to NMBA is associated a higher likelihood of primary fascial closure.

Decreased cytotoxic T cell activity generated by co-administration of PSA vaccine and CpG ODN is associated with increased tumor protection in a mouse model of prostate cancer.

Immunization with an adenovirus-PSA (Ad5-PSA) vaccine alone strongly induces the expansion of CD8+ T cells with enhanced cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity against the antigen-bearing tumor cells in vitro as well as in vivo in a mouse model of prostate cancer. However, in an attempt to enhance the anti-tumor immunity induced by the vaccine, co-administration of CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG ODN) with Ad5-PSA vaccine dramatically reduces the immune responses measured by in vitro CTL activity and the number of IFN-gamma producing cells. Surprisingly, in vivo experiments showed that mice immunized with the combined approach of Ad5-PSA and CpG had enhanced protection against the subsequent tumor challenge as compared to mice immunized with vaccine alone.