Trauma

Trauma scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) are leading a multicentre study to explore the immunological and anti-inflammatory effects of hypertonic saline as part of the North-American-wide Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium. Sunnybrook is one of only three institutions funded by the National Institutes for Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Defense Research Development of Canada to evaluate whether concentrated salt solutions provided early to injured patients can prevent delayed organ failure that leads to death.

Trauma researchers at SRI are also developing and testing novel diagnostic tools to detect and treat traumatic coagulopathy. They are using old technology in new ways to monitor blood clotting to understand why some patients still bleed to death after trauma. With funding from Defense Research Development of Canada, they are working to identify techniques that will prevent these unnecessary deaths.

Other areas of investigation include:

• the role of alcohol in the outcome of patients with head injury;
• radiation exposure in trauma;
• causes of mortality in trauma; and
• the delay in time for surgery in trauma as a marker of quality of care.