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A. Brent Eastman, MD

Arch Surg. 2006;141:1192.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

This is a well-designed, retrospective study using a large Canadian trauma system database. Tien et al examine the hypothesis that "admission blood alcohol concentration is associated with in-hospital death in patients with severe brain injury from blunt head trauma."

There is a long-held myth that intoxicated trauma victims are more relaxed and, therefore, fare better than nonintoxicated patients. In the interest of public health, this is a myth to be discredited.

However, this study did find that the cohort of patients with severe TBI and a low BAC had a higher survival rate than those with no BAC. This finding should stimulate clinical research to better understand the potential neuroprotective effects of a low BAC, but it should clearly not be a call for trauma patients with severe TBI to premedicate with alcohol. Rather, the emphasis more appropriately should be placed on the fact that 30% . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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RELATED ARTICLE

Association Between Alcohol and Mortality in Patients With Severe Traumatic Head Injury
Homer C. N. Tien, Lorraine N. Tremblay, Sandro B. Rizoli, Jacob Gelberg, Talat Chughtai, Peter Tikuisis, Pang Shek, and Frederick D. Brenneman
Arch Surg. 2006;141(12):1185-1191.
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