Active intravascular rewarming for hypothermia associated with traumatic injury: early experience with a new technique.

Hypothermia is a significant contributor to mortality in severely injured patients. Rewarming is an enormous challenge, especially in those who require operative or angiographic intervention. In this patient population, external warming methods are only capable of reducing further heat loss, whereas active rewarming adds heat to the body's core but is invasive.

Successful diagnosis of penetrating cardiac injury using surgeon-performed sonography.

Background: Patients with penetrating cardiac injuries have a high mortality. The utilization of sonography in these patients may lead to earlier diagnosis and definitive surgical intervention.

Methods: A retrospective review of all patients admitted to a level I trauma center were examined from March 1996 to March 2001 (17,241 patients).