ACUTE AND CHRONIC-ALCOHOLISM - EFFECT ON THE COURSE OF TREATMENT IN TRAUMATIZED PATIENTS

The effect of alcoholism on the length of stay and costs of hospital t reatment is not well documented. The posttraumatic course of treatment of 75 alcohol intoxicated patient was prospectively followed. A short ened MAST-test served to identify chronic alcoholised patients. The ob tained data were compared with a control group according to the matche d-pair method. The course of treatment of 44 drunken patients without signs of chronic alcoholism was not different from the control group. However 31 chronic alcohol intoxicated patients showed a clearly diffe rent course from the control group. The hospital stay was nearly doubl ed (13.5 days) compared to the control group (7.5 days). There were ex plicitly more consultations of specialists (26 vs. 9) necessary and th e complication rate (9 vs. 1) during the hospital stay was significant ly increased. Chronic alcoholism of traumatised patients yields to a c ost increase of the hospital treatment. The high complication rate for ces an intensive supervision of the affected patients. These results h ave to be taken into account by calculations of reimbursement rates fo r the field of trauma surgery.