Diagnosis of carotid arterial injury in major trauma using a modification of Memphis criteria

Abstract

BackgroundIncidence of Blunt Cerebrovascular Injuries (BCVI) after head injury has been reported as 0.5-1% of all admissions for blunt trauma, with a high stroke and mortality rate. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if a modification of Memphis criteria could improve the rate of BCVI diagnosis.MethodsTrauma patients consecutively admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) from Jan 2008 to Oct 2009 were considered for the study. Memphis criteria comprehend: basilar skull fracture with involvement of the carotid canal, cervical spine fracture, neurological exam not explained by brain imaging, Horner's syndrome, LeFort II-III fractures, and neck soft tissue injury. As single criteria modification, we included all patients with petrous bone fracture, even without carotid canal involvement. In all patients at risk of BCVI, 64-slice angio-CT-scans was performed.ResultsDuring the study period, 266 patients were admitted to the ICU for blunt major trauma. Among them, 162 presented traumatic brain injury or cervical spine fracture. In accordance with the proposed modified-Memphis criteria, 53 patients showed risk factors for BCVI compared to 45 using the original Memphis criteria. Among the 53 patients, 6 resulted as having carotid lesions (2.2% of all blunt major traumas; one patient more than when using Memphis criteria). Anticoagulant therapy with low molecular weight heparin was administered in all patients. No stroke or hemorrhagic complications occurred. Clinical examination at 6-months showed no central neurological deficit.ConclusionA modification of a single criteria of Memphis screening protocol might permit the identification of a higher percentage of BCVI. Limited by sample size, this study needs to be validated.

Blunt cerebrovascular injury following craniomaxillofacial fractures: A systematic review

“…Of those, 54 met inclusion criteria for this CMF study and required full article review. Ultimately, 21 studies from five countries fulfilled the inclusion criteria (Table ) . Reasons for exclusion are listed in Figure .…”

“…Reasons for exclusion are listed in Figure . In total, 14 studies were retrospective and seven studies were prospective . Nine studies reported individual patient data on a total of 135 patients, allowing for subgroup analysis …”

“…Pooled data from the 21 studies identified 376 CMF fractures reported in the setting of 1,026 BCVIs . The MINOR scores demonstrated significant heterogeneity of the reported data (Table ), which limited the analysis of fracture patterns to descriptive statistics.…”

“…Fourteen studies provided mortality data . Fifty‐three deaths were reported among 684 BCVI patients for an overall mortality rate of 7.7%.…”

“…Fourteen studies reported the total number of blunt trauma admissions, as well as the total number of BCVI diagnoses. 2,3,8,[14][15][16][19][20][21][23][24][25][26][27] Pooled data identified 410 BCVI cases diagnosed among 90,968 blunt trauma admissions with CMF fractures for an overall incidence of 0.45%. The remaining seven studies did not include sufficient information to calculate the overall BCVI incidence.…”