The role of emergency department thoracotomy in patients with cranial gunshot wounds.

Background: Although several society guidelines exist regarding emergency department thoracotomy (EDT), there is a lack of data upon which to base guidance for multiple gunshot wound (GSW) patients whose injuries include a cranial GSW. We hypothesized that survival in these patients would be exceedingly low.

Methods: We used Pennsylvania Trauma Outcomes Study data, 2002 to 2021, and included EDTs for GSWs.

Ethics Consultation in Surgical Specialties.

Multiple studies have been performed to identify the most common ethical dilemmas encountered by ethics consultation services. However, limited data exists comparing the content of ethics consultations requested by specific hospital specialties. It remains unclear whether the scope of ethical dilemmas prompting an ethics consultation differ between specialties and if there are types of ethics consultations that are more or less frequently called based on the specialty initiating the ethics consult.