ArticleScandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine2021
Alcohol and trauma: the influence of blood alcohol levels on the severity of injuries and outcome of trauma patients - a retrospective analysis of 6268 patients of the TraumaRegister DGU
Article in Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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7 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Alcohol-positive polytrauma patients: injury patterns, ICU resource use and mortality at a German Level I trauma center.International journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Association Between Substance Use and Trauma Outcomes in Adolescents.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Elevated Blood Alcohol Concentration at Stroke Onset Predicts Poor Clinical Outcomes and Mortality After Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Neurology and therapy · 2026Article
- The influence of alcohol on prehospital diagnostics and therapy of injured patients.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Alcohol is a risk factor for helmet non-use and fatalities in off-road vehicle and motorcycle crashes.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2024Article
- Which risk factors significantly influence the outcome of traumatic brain injured patients with alcohol use disorder?European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2024Article
- Lactic acid levels are associated with morbidity, length of stay, and total treatment costs in urban trauma patients with lower extremity long bone fractures.European journal of orthopaedic surgery & traumatology : orthopedie traumatologie · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBlood alcohol level (BAL) has previously been considered as a factor influencing the outcome of injured patients. Despite the well-known positive correlation between alcohol-influenced traffic participation and the risk of accidents, there is still no clear evidence of a positive correlation between blood alcohol levels and severity of injury. The aim of the study was to analyze data of the TraumaRegister DGU
methodsDatasets from 11,842 trauma patients of the TR-DGU from the years 2015 and 2016 were analyzed retrospectively and 6268 patients with a full dataset and an AIS ≥ 3 could be used for evaluation. Two groups were formed for data analysis. A control group with a BAL = 0 ‰ (BAL negative) was compared to an alcohol group with a BAL of ≥0.3‰ to < 4.0‰ (BAL positive). Patients with a BAL > 0‰ and < 0.3‰ were excluded. They were compared with regard to various preclinical, clinical and physiological parameters. Additionally, a subgroup analysis with a focus on patients with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) was performed. A total of 5271 cases were assigned to the control group and 832 cases to the BAL positive group. 70.3% (3704) of the patients in the control group were male. The collective of the control group was on average 5.7 years older than the patients in the BAL positive group (p < .001). The control group showed a mean ISS of 20.3 and the alcohol group of 18.9 (p = .007). In terms of the injury severity of head, the BAL positive group was significantly higher on average than the control group (p < 0.001), whereas the control group showed a higher AIS to thorax and extremities (p < 0.001). The mean Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was 10.8 in the BAL positive group and 12.0 in the control group (p < 0.001). Physiological parameters such as base excess (BE) and International Normalized Ratio (INR) showed reduced values for the BAL positive group. However, neither the 24-h mortality nor the overall mortality showed a significant difference in either group (p = 0.19, p = 0.14). In a subgroup analysis, we found that patients with a relevant head injury (AIS: Abbreviated Injury Scale head ≥3) and positive BAL displayed a higher survival rate compared to patients in the control group with isolated TBI (p < 0.001).
conclusionsThis retrospective study analyzed the influence of the blood alcohol level in severely injured patients in a large national dataset. BAL positive patients showed worse results with regard to head injuries, the GCS and to some other physiological parameters. Finally, neither the 24-h mortality nor the overall mortality showed a significant difference in either group. Only in a subgroup analysis the mortality rate in BAL negative patients with TBI was significantly higher than the mortality rate of BAL positive patients with TBI. This mechanism is not yet fully understood and is discussed controversially in the literature.
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