No benefit from the addition of low-dose ketamine infusion to standard evidence-based care of patients with multiple rib fractures.

Background: Multiple rib fractures from blunt thoracic trauma cause significant morbidity. Optimal current management includes multimodal analgesia, pulmonary hygiene, and early mobilization. Low-dose ketamine infusion (LDKI) has been proposed as an adjunctive analgesic in this setting.

Efficacy of Losartan in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19-Induced Lung Injury: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: SARS-CoV-2 viral entry may disrupt angiotensin II (AII) homeostasis, contributing to COVID-19 induced lung injury. AII type 1 receptor blockade mitigates lung injury in preclinical models, although data in humans with COVID-19 remain mixed.

Objective: To test the efficacy of losartan to reduce lung injury in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Clinical Decision Support Intervention for Rib Fracture Treatment.

Background: Rib fractures are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite the publication of management guidelines and national outcomes benchmarking, there is significant variation in evidence-based (EB) adherence and outcomes. Systems for clinical decision support intervention (CDSI) allow rapid ordering of bundled disease-specific EB treatments.

Ketamine as an Analgesic Adjuvant in Adult Trauma Intensive Care Unit Patients With Rib Fracture.

Background: Rib fracture associated pain is difficult to control. There are no published studies that use ketamine as a therapeutic modality to reduce the amount of opioid to control rib fracture pain.

Objective: To examine the analgesic effects of adjuvant ketamine on pain scale scores in trauma intensive care unit (ICU) rib fracture.

Riding into the golden years: injury patterns and outcomes of advanced-age motorcycle trauma.

Background: Our objectives were to characterize injury, complications, and outcomes for older riders after motorcycle accidents due to the rising trend in advanced-age motorcyclists.

Methods: From 2008 to 2013, injured motorcyclists were compared by age group: younger (0 to 54 years) vs older (≥55 years) in a retrospective review of the trauma databank at North Memorial Medical Center, a Level-1 trauma center.

Results: Of 432 patients, the older group (n = 100) had more fractures (60% vs 42%), injuries per patient (2 vs 1), intensive care unit admissions (48% vs 32%), ventilator days (8 vs 5), in-hospital complications (16% vs 8%), and hospital days (5.

Are the frail destined to fail? Frailty index as predictor of surgical morbidity and mortality in the elderly.

Background: America's aging population has led to an increase in the number of elderly patients necessitating emergency general surgery. Previous studies have demonstrated that increased frailty is a predictor of outcomes in medicine and surgical patients. We hypothesized that use of a modification of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging Frailty Index would be a predictor of morbidity and mortality in patients older than 60 years undergoing emergency general surgery.