The results showed that the septic status of patients influenced the accuracy of the RTCGMS in the ICU. Accuracy was significantly better in patients with septic shock in comparison with the other patient cohorts.

No abstract

The term "balconing" refers to the practice of jumping from hotel balconies or roofs to swimming pools, or between hotel balconies. This activity is performed by young vacationists in certain European touristic locations, and it is perceived as a recreational practice. The activity generates a small but constant flow of patients with fall-related severe brain and systemic injuries. Our institution is a reference hospital for severe trauma in a geographic zone where "balconing" activity takes place. We have retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients sustaining "balconing"-related injuries. Salient features regarding epidemiology, neurosurgical injuries, systemic injuries, and outcome are described. With this series of cases, we aim to present "balconing" as a cause of traumatic brain injury and polytrauma in a defined population, and to express the concern this group of patients generate.

El traumatismo de aorta torácica es una lesión asociada a una alta morbimortalidad en el lugar del accidente. En los años noventa se generalizó el tratamiento mediante la colocación de un stent endovascular con buenos resultados. En este trabajo presentamos una serie de cinco casos clíni-cos de pacientes ingresados en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos de nuestro hospital durante el año 2006. De un total de 619 pacientes ingresados en el mismo periodo, 121 (19,5%) fueron traumá-ticos y 5 (4,13%) sufrían traumatismos de aorta torácica. Todos los pacientes fueron diagnosticados por tomografía computarizada helicoidal torácica al ingreso. Cuatro pacientes tenían un pseudoaneurisma de aorta y fueron intervenidos. Tres recibieron tratamiento endovascular dentro de las 36 primeras horas y el otro al vigesimoctavo día del ingreso. El quinto paciente presentó una lesión de la íntima y no se intervino. La evolución posterior fue buena en todos los casos.PALABRAS CLAVE: traumatismo de aorta torácica, tratamiento endovascular, politraumatismo. MANAGEMENT OF THORACIC AORTA TRAUMATISM IN 5 MULTIPLE TRAUMATIZED PATIENTSThoracic aorta traumatism is a lesion associated to high morbidity-mortality at the site of the accident. In the 90's, treatment by placement of an endovascular stent was generalized with good results. In this work, we present a series of 5 clinical cases of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of our hospital during the year 2006. Out of a total of 619 patients admitted in the same period, 121 (19.5%) were traumatic and 5 (4.13%) had thoracic aorta traumatisms. All of the patients were diagnosed by thoracic helical computed tomography on admission. Four patients had a pseudoaneurism of the aorta and underwent an operation. Three received endovascular treatment within the first 36 hours and the fourth on day 28 of admission. The fifth patient had a lesion of the intima and was not operated on. Posterior evolution was good in all the cases. KEY WORDS: thoracic aorta traumatism, endovascular treatment, multiple traumatism.