Clinical trial NCT03463720: Outcome for Patients With War-Associated Extremity Wound Infection
Official title: Outcome for Patients With War-Associated Extremity Wound Infection
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Wounds and Injuries
Lead sponsor: Karolinska Institutet
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
First posted: 2018-03-13
Enrollment: 843
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Consecutive patients treated at the hospital in Peshawar between September 27, 2010 and May 9, 2012 that meet eligibility criteria.

Brief summary: Extremity wounds and fractures constitute the majority of war-associated traumatic injuries, both for civilians and combatants. War-associated injuries are often contaminated with foreign material, leading to infection. Wound infections is considered a major risk to life and restoration of function in war-wounded patients surviving past the first hours. In a cohort study the investigators aim to assess whether the infection itself affects patient outcome (i.e. amputation, death) when comparing patients with and patients without infection.

Detailed description: Armed violence has occurred intermittently in northwestern Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan since the beginning of the 1980s. In 1981 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) opened a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, to care for the injured from the armed conflict in Afghanistan. In 2004 the number of patients increased as a result of the emerging divergence between the State of Pakistan and militant groups in the Northwestern Pakistan. Yearly about 1000 patients with war-associated injuries, predominantly caused by gunshots and explosive devices have been treated for free at the ICRC hospital in Peshawar. The hospital is now closed.

War-associated injuries are generally treated according to the ICRC war surgical protocol. Research on the epidemiology of and risk factors for wound infection in patients with war-associated injuries is limited and primarily include military combatants, leading to a selection of young males. Due to the use of body armor and forward surgical teams this data may not be applicable to a civilian setting. It is unknown to what extent wound infection itself is a factor contributing to serious complications such as amputation and death. Knowledge is needed to gear resources towards those most in need. This research makes use of a unique database that contains both civilians and combatants of both sexes and all ages. The investigators aim to assess whether the infection itself affects patient outcome (i.e. amputation, death) when comparing patients with and patients without infection.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients that have received treatment for war-associated extremity wounds
* Patients that present at the hospital within 72 hours of injury
* Patients with valid data on baseline wound status.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients that are re-admitted during the study period, i.e. patients that received treatment during the study period and are later re-admitted will only be counted as one patient.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Amputation
timeFrame: From hospital admission to discharge, an average of 15 days
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Death
timeFrame: From hospital admission to discharge, an average of 15 days
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Peshawar
country: Pakistan
facility: International Committee of the Red Cross hospital
state: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Study officials:
affiliation: Karolinska Institutet
name: Jonas Malmstedt, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: