Delayed surgical intervention of injuries may improve outcome.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/bu-dmt021621.php

 

News Release 16-Feb-2021Delayed medical treatment of high-impact injuries: A lesson from the Syrian civil war
In providing humanitarian medical treatment to victims of the Syrian civil war, Israeli researchers from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University and Galilee Medical Center found that delayed surgical intervention may improve outcome.
Bar-Ilan University

 

Following the civil war outbreak in Syria nearly ten years ago, Israel began admitting wounded Syrians into the country for humanitarian medical treatment.


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Most of the wounded were brought to the Galilee Medical Center (GMC) in northern Israel. Some were admitted within 24 hours of injury. For others, it took as long as 14-28 days to reach Israel from the combat zone.

The delay in the commencement of treatment provided medical professionals and researchers from GMC's Ear, Nose, and Throat Ward and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery with a rare window of opportunity to observe and evaluate how this lapse in time impacted the outcome of treatment.

In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers report, quite surprisingly, that patients injured in the facial bones by high-speed fire and operated on approximately 2-4 weeks after the injury suffered fewer post-operative complications compared to wounded who underwent immediate surgical treatment (within 72 hours). The researchers hypothesize that this is due to a critical period of time before surgery, which facilitates healing and formation of new blood vessels in the area of the injury and, subsequently, an improvement in the blood and oxygen supply and a reduction in the incidence of complications.

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