What is polytrauma?
Polytrauma is when someone sustains multiple traumatic injuries at once. Examples of traumatic injuries include:
- Musculoskeletal injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBI)
- Extracranial injuries
- Neurologic injuries
Orthopaedic polytrauma is most common after things like:
- High-speed automobile accidents
- Electric scooter injuries
- Workplace injuries
- Assault
- Falls from high places
Accidents and violent attacks can lead to polytraumatic orthopaedic injuries such as skull fractures, femoral neck fractures, complete or partial joint dislocation, third-degree ligament sprains, deep muscle contusion, and limb deformities.
What is the Abbreviated Injury Scale?
The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) helps first responders and orthopaedic surgeons like Dr. Johnson evaluate a polytrauma patient when they come in for assistance. It ranks injuries on a scale of one to six, with one being minor and six being unsurvivable, and divides them into nine anatomical regions:
- Head
- Face
- Neck
- Thorax
- Abdomen
- Spine
- Upper extremity
- Lower extremity
- External
First responders go through each region and rank them based on their injuries, or lack thereof. If you have even minor polytraumatic orthopaedic injuries, you can experience discomfort and debilitation.
Polytrauma patients are admitted directly to Level I medical centers, and care is provided by a general surgery team with specialty consults. All polytrauma patients admitted to Dr. Johnson are through the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
To prevent complications, including those that occur later in life, Dr. Johnson offers a variety of orthopaedic solutions, including reconstructive procedures, hip replacements, and osteotomy.
How do you address polytrauma?
When you seek care for polytrauma, the first thing Dr. Johnson does is check to see if you have any orthopaedic injuries and to what extent. To determine this, he orders tests such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans.
Because chest, spine, and pelvis injuries tend to present higher risks, he checks for these first. After that, he moves onto extremities such as the limbs.
If you require urgent care, Dr. Johnson, who is especially well-versed in managing severe and complex orthopaedic trauma injuries, starts your treatment. Treatment varies depending on the type and extent of the polytrauma. As you heal, he continues to monitor your progress and provide care.
If you experience an accident or assault that leaves you with multiple injuries, seek help immediately. Once you know you’re not in imminent danger, reach out to Dr. Johnson online or over the phone for an orthopaedic polytrauma assessment.
