Proportions were compared with Fisher’s exact test. SPSS® statistics software was used for calculations. The statistical significance level P505-15 is agreed at p < 0.05. Results Seventeen patients (46%) received

hypertonic fluid resuscitation and 20 (54%) conventional fluid therapy. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups concerning age, sex, mechanism of injury, incidence of brain injury, RTS or ISS (Table 1). The mean (SD) age of the patients was 44 (21 – range 16-87) years, 29 (78%) of them were male. Four patients (11%) had a penetrating injury (2 gunshot wounds, 1 stabbing, 1 explosion), and 33 (89%) had blunt injuries (22 traffic Selleckchem NVP-BSK805 accidents, 7 falls, 3 compression injuries and one patient injured by a heavy falling object). The mean RTS was 7.3427 (0.98) (range 4.09 – 7.84), and mean ISS was 15.1 (11.7) range 1-41). Eighteen patients (49%) were treated at the Turku University hospital and 19 (51%) at the Helsinki University Hospital.

Nine patients (24%) had a brain injury. The overall mortality rate was 3 (8%) patients. The outcome variables did not differ between the two treatment groups (Table 2). Table 1 Patient characteristics   Overall Hypertonic Saline (HS) group Conventional fluid therapy group p-value Number of patients 37 17 (46%) 20 (54%)   Mean patient age in years (SD) 44 (21) 37 (18) 50 (22) 0,074 Number of male patients (percentage) 29 (78%) 12 (71%) 17 (85%)

0,428 Number of female patients (percentage) 8 (22%) 5 (29%) 3 (15%)   Number of patients with Torin 1 chemical structure blunt Pyruvate dehydrogenase trauma (percentage) 33 (89%) 15 (88%) 18 (90%) 1,000 Number of patients with penetrating trauma (percentage) 4 (11%) 2 (12%) 2 (10%)   Number of patients with associated brain injury (percentage) 9 (24%) 5 (29%) 4 (20%) 0,703 Mean Injury Severity Score ISS (SD) 15,1 (11,7) 13,4 (9,5) 16,5 (13,3) 0,614 Mean Revised Trauma Score RTS (SD) 7,343 (0,977) 6,949 (1,302) 7,680 (0,369) 0,084 Mean Glasgow Coma Score GCS (SD) 13,0 (3,2) 12,6 (3,4) 13,3 (3,1) 0,374 Time interval in minutes from trauma to BE-measurement on accident site (SD) 47 (22) 48 (21) 45 (23) 0,372 Time interval in minutes from BE-measurement on accident site to hospital admission (SD) 53 (27) 60 (29) 47 (24) 0,106 Table 2 Outcome   Overall Hypertonic Saline (HS) group Conventional fluid therapy group p-value Mortality (percentage) 3 (8%) 1 (6%) 2 (10%) 1.000 Transfused red blood cell units (SD) 5.4 (8.5) 4.4 (8.7) 6.2 (8.3) 0.416 Duration of intensive care in days (SD) 5 (8) 5 (7) 6 (9) 0.670 Duration of hospital care in days (SD) 25 (43) 15 (12) 34 (57) 0.891 In both groups, the systolic blood pressure and heart rate values increased from the accident site to the time of the hospital admission, but there was no difference between the two fluid strategy groups (Table 3). In contrast, the BE levels decreased more within the HS group (mean BE difference -2.