Season-dependent characteristics of shock-related injuries in the Arctic zone of the Arkhangelsk region

Relevance. Studying the dynamics of injury rates, injury types and severity, as well as the treatment quality across various country regions, in particular the Arctic, is a prerequisite for managerial, healthcare, and strategic efficiency prior to and during hospital stay, taking into account the climate, geography, social and economic characteristics of every Russian Federation constituent.

The objective is to analyse shock-related injuries in the Arctic zone of the Arkhangelsk region to understand season-related injury dynamics.

Methods. Retrospective case series description parameters were used to study 140 patients with traumatic shock admitted to the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital (ARCH) - a tier 1 trauma center. The analysed medical registration records included patient ambulance record and token (form 114/u), inpatient medical record (form 003/u), surgery logbook (form 008/u), patient radiographs, CT and nuclear MRI reports, as well as laboratory results. The study was conducted in accordance with ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and European Community Directives (8/906 EC) and was approved by the local ethics committee of the Northern State Medical University of the Russian Ministry of Healthcare, Arkhangelsk (protocol no. 02/4-15 dated 04/08/2015). Statistical application package STATA ver.12 was used for statistical data processing.

Results and discussion. The research demonstrated that the incidence of shock trauma is 4 times higher in men than in women. The vast majority of the injured are of working age. Seasonal distribution analysis per type of injuries and shock severity, including due to alcohol abuse, was carried out. The number of shock injuries is highest in winter, mainly due to road accidents which constitute 75.6 % of all injuries in winter. Throughout the year, over 50 % of shock injuries are combined injuries, that outperform isolated and multiple injuries in number. In particular, numerous combined injuries occur in winter with a responsible for almost 60 % among all other injuries. The majority the injured with shock-related trauma presented with stage 2 shock (49.3 %), whereas stage 1 and stage 3 shock was diagnosed in 27.9 % and in 21.4 % respectively. In winter, one in four patients with a shock-related injury presented with stage 3 shock. Alcohol-associated shock injuries are more numerous in summer (35.3 %), showing almost the same incidence as road traffic, domestic, and street injuries.

Conclusion. The analysis of various types of injuries and season-related incidence of shock injuries in the Arctic territory of the Arkhangelsk region provides evidence to justify preventive measures to reduce the injury rates. Intensified efforts are required to minimise road traffic accidents in winter and combat alcohol abuse responsible for most injuries in summer. Since the vast majority of shock injuries occur in winter, in cold months ambulances must be equipped with local heating facilities, such as evacuation thermal bags with autonomous electric heating, thermal blankets, infusion warmers for blood transfusion and infusion sets.

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