Plastic Surgeons Vital to Emergency Trauma Surgery Wards

Plastic surgery has never been more important to the field of emergency trauma, according to a study in the Turkish Journal of Trauma & Emergency Surgery that surveyed the growing role of plastic surgery in one of the country’s emergency surgery wards.

The study examined over 10,000 patients at the emergency Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery outpatient clinic in an Istanbul training and research hospital, and revealed a great deal about the nature of the clinic’s patients.

Who were the patients?

• There were four times more men than women.
• The average age was roughly 23 years.

What issues brought them to the ward?

• Almost two-thirds had suffered injuries to their forearms and/or hands.
• More than 25 percent had injuries to the head and neck.
• Eight percent of patients had tissue trauma.

What caused their injuries?

• Roughly a third of forearm and/or hand injuries were caused by glassware cuts. Most of these injuries had been inflicted by the patients in outbursts of anger. The remaining injuries were caused by falls, traffic accidents, household accidents, and workplace injuries.
• Almost forty percent of head-and-neck injuries were caused by traffic accidents. For patients under the age of 20, sports injuries were the top cause of injury, while for patients over 50, injuries occurred most often during daily activities.
• Almost two-thirds of all soft tissue trauma cases were caused by traffic accidents. The remainder were caused by burns, gunshot wounds, falls, and infections.

The authors of the study suggest that these results indicate a growing demand for plastic surgeons in emergency trauma surgery. In particular, the surgeons’ ability to work on various parts of the body makes them a resilient addition to any emergency trauma surgery team.