Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the population of pediatric patients who arrive without signs of life and describe outcomes using a national database.
Patients eighteen and younger with no signs of life were pulled from the National Trauma Database (NTDB) from the years 2007-2016. A total of N = 7503 patients were separated into two cohorts for comparison. Subset analysis was also conducted for patients undergoing a thoracotomy. Statistical analysis was performed on the collected data. Over the 9-year period most patients died in the ED or hospital (95.7%), very few patients were discharged home (1.3%), and ED thoracotomies were performed rarely (9%) with most patients dying (97%).
Arrival to the trauma bay without signs of life is associated with a dismal prognosis. Clinical judgment must be carefully applied to choose the small number of patients who would benefit from an aggressive approach.
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