ABSTRACT

The aim of our study is to establish the point at which a high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in patients admitted to a hospital’s emergency department (ED) after an automobile accident can increase the severity of the injury and influence the survival and death rates.

Our study is a prospective performed on patients ≥18 years of age admitted to the ED for in-car road accidents (ICRA) between September 15, 2011 and September 14, 201214-09-2012. Information such as demographic features, trauma score systems, BACs, hospital charges, discharge, hospitalization, and death of the patients was recorded.

The BACs of 52 out of a total of 324 patients were determined to be above normal limits (50 mg/dL). The clinical condition of patients with a BAC above normal limits was relatively worse (42.9%) than those with a BAC within normal limits (p<0.05). The BAC was above normal limits for 30.0% of the hospitalized patients, for 50% of surgical patients, and for 45.5% of deceased patients.

This study determined that there is a relationship between a high BAC and injury severity for patients admitted to the ED for ICRA and that a high BAC negatively affects the survival rate and increases the death rate in emergency medicine.

Keywords: Blood alcohol concentration, in-car road accident, injury severity, emergency unit