Characterization of Combined Blast- and Fragment-Induced Pelvic Injuries and Hemostatic Resuscitation in Rabbits.

INTRODUCTION

To establish a blast- and fragment-induced pelvic injury animal model in rabbits, observe its injury characteristics, and explore the effects of hemostatic resuscitation combined with damage control surgery (DCS) with respect to this injury model.

METHODS

Forty-eight rabbits were randomly allocated to four groups: group A rabbits were subjected to pelvic injury, group B rabbits to pelvic injury + DCS, group C rabbits to pelvic injury + DCS + resuscitation with Hextend, and group D rabbits to pelvic injury + DCS + Hextend + hemostatic resuscitation with tranexamic acid, fibrinogen concentrate, and prothrombin complex concentrate. Simulated blast and fragment-induced pelvic injury was produced by a custom-made machine. We implemented CT scanning and necropsy to assess the injury state and calculated the coefficient of variation (CV) of the cumulative abbreviated injury scale (AIS) to assess the reproducibility of the animal model. Immediately after instrumentation (0 h), and 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, and 8 h after injury, blood samples were taken for laboratory tests.

RESULTS

We found that severe pelvic injury was produced with an AIS CV value of 10.32%, and the rabbits demonstrated severe physiologic impairment and coagulo-fibrinolytic derangements with high mortality. In rabbits of group D, however, physiologic and coagulo-fibrinolytic parameters were significantly enhanced with improved organ function and lowered mortality when compared with the other three groups.

CONCLUSIONS

We herein established in rabbits a blast- and fragment-induced pelvic injury animal model that exhibited high reproducibility, and we demonstrated that hemostatic resuscitation plus DCS was effective in improving the outcome.