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. 2018 Jan 16:13:2.
doi: 10.1186/s13017-017-0161-2. eCollection 2018.

Casualties of peace: an analysis of casualties admitted to the intensive care unit during the negotiation of the comprehensive Colombian process of peace

Carlos A Ordoñez  1   2 , Ramiro Manzano-Nunez  1   3 , Maria Paula Naranjo  1   3 , Esteban Foianini  4 , Cecibel Cevallos  2 , Maria Alejandra Londoño  5 , Alvaro I Sanchez Ortiz  1   3 , Alberto F García  1   2 , Ernest E Moore  6
Affiliations

Casualties of peace: an analysis of casualties admitted to the intensive care unit during the negotiation of the comprehensive Colombian process of peace

Carlos A Ordoñez et al. World J Emerg Surg. .

Abstract

Background: After 52 years of war in 2012, the Colombian government began the negotiation of a process of peace, and by November 2012, a truce was agreed. We sought to analyze casualties who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) before and during the period of the negotiation of the comprehensive Colombian process of peace.

Methods: Retrospective study of hostile casualties admitted to the ICU at a Level I trauma center from January 2011 to December 2016. Patients were subsequently divided into two groups: those seen before the declaration of the process of peace truce (November 2012) and those after (November 2012-December 2016). Patients were compared with respect to time periods.

Results: Four hundred forty-eight male patients were admitted to the emergency room. Of these, 94 required ICU care. Sixty-five casualties presented before the truce and 29 during the negotiation period. Median injury severity score was significantly higher before the truce. Furthermore, the odds of presenting with severe trauma (ISS > 15) were significantly higher before the truce (OR, 5.4; (95% CI, 2.0-14.2); p < 0.01). There was a gradual decrease in the admissions to the ICU, and the performance of medical and operative procedures during the period observed.

Conclusion: We describe a series of war casualties that required ICU care in a period of peace negotiation. Despite our limitations, our study presents a decline in the occurrence, severity, and consequences of war injuries probably as a result in part of the negotiation of the process of peace. The hysteresis of these results should only be interpreted for their implications in the understanding of the peace-health relationship and must not be overinterpreted and used for any political end.

Keywords: Casualties; Critical care; Critical care outcomes; Military personnel; Peace; Trauma; Wounds and injuries.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Institutional Review Board of La Fundación Valle del Lili University Hospital approved the study protocol (Protocol Number: 554).Not applicableSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Variations in hostile casualties’ admissions and trauma mechanisms 2011–2016. (Description: shows the variations in hostile casualties admissions to the ER and trauma mechanisms during the period observed. Blue circles: graphic representation of the proportion of ICU admissions each year)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Variations in ICU admissions Trauma Transfusion Protocol Activations (TTP) and Damage Control Laparotomy. (Description: shows the variations in ICU admissions and the performance of damage control resuscitation procedures each year (TTP, Trauma Transfusion Protocol (red line); DCL, damage control laparotomy (green line); ICU; intensive care unit (blue line))
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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