Blood alcohol concentration and management of road trauma patients in the emergency department

Background: The effects of blood alcohol on injury after crash are controve rsial, and safe limits are not settled. We examined if a positive blood alc ohol concentration, even in a nontoxic range, affects management and outcom e of injured patients after road crashes. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we recruited all adult subjects admitted to an emergency department within 4 hours after a road crash. Outc omes were mortality or expected permanent disability, and data related to p atients' management. Results: Alcohol-positive trauma patients were more frequently critical at admission (odds ratio [OR], 1.89; 95% confidence interval [CT], 1.18-3.02), and had an increased risk of combined mortality or expected permanent disa bility (OR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.08-2.58), need for intensive care (OR, 1.87; 95 % CI, 1.01-3.46), surgery (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.37-2.66) and blood transfusi ons (OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.20-3.64), and acute medical complications (OR, 1.9 4; 95% CI, 1.33-2.85). All these events were explained by higher trauma sev erity. Only the risk of unsuspected injuries, diagnosed only at final evalu ation, was independently associated with a positive blood alcohol concentra tion (OR, 4.98; 95% CI, 3.62-6.87), in addition to trauma severity and pree xisting chronic conditions. Blood alcohol measurement significantly improve d the accuracy in predicting unsuspected injuries, from 81.3% to 86.2%. Conclusion: In injured patients after a road crash, a positive blood alcoho l concentration increases the chance that the final diagnosis will include more injuries than initially documented. More careful monitoring is needed in alcohol-positive trauma patients, independent of clinical status, injury severity, and overt symptoms of alcohol intoxication.