Alcoholism in polytrauma.

Alcoholism is a blight which implicates numerous areas. Polytrauma requires a sometimes long and expensive hospitalization, with a mortality of approximately one in three. In 250 patients (the mean ISS is the same for patients who died, whether nonalcoholics, chronic alcoholics, or occasional drinkers), there was a significant difference between the mortality rate of two-wheeled vehicle drivers and the mortality rate of the light vehicle drivers (p less than 0.05). The risks of morbidity and mortality amongst alcoholics increased for chronic alcoholics (60%) regardless of sex or age differences. Mortality of occasional drinkers was 13.3%, 51% of the offenders were chronic alcoholics. Chronic alcoholism in polytraumatology appears to be a serious element since 59% of multiple injured patients had blood alcohol concentration greater than 1.20 gm/L, 65% greater than 0.80 gm/L, and 70% greater than 0.50 gm/L. Thus chronic alcoholism is a serious index in traumatology.