https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/early/2024/08/29/military-2024-002797

Interesting retrospective analysis of the DoD Trauma Registry, evaluating the 24h survival rate of emergency room thoracotomy (ERT). Overall, the 24h survival was 26%, which is generally higher than seen in civilian trauma (~10% depending on the study).

Penetrating trauma is associated with increased survival for ERT when compared with blunt trauma, likely accounting for some of the differences in the DoDTR compared with civilian data.

As military medicine moves forward, critical appraisal of the data should be used to help guide future decision making. The DoDTR is a great data resource, and continued high quality data collection should be made prospectively to allow for future retrospective