Inflammatory Response to Trauma - Does Early Cytokine Modulation Improve Patient Outcome

Accidental trauma is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States, and it is associated with a complex inflammatory response. This response is associated with post-traumatic complications such as; multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), bacterial pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and post-traumatic pain (PTP). It is unknown whether early modulation of inflammatory cytokines is associated with improved patient outcomes, reduced narcotic requirements, and improved patient subjective pain after hospital discharge.

Preliminary data has shown: (1) elevated blood cytokine concentrations during the acute phase of trauma are correlated with the development of fatal post-traumatic complications, (2) that early administration of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) resulted in decreased blood serum levels of interleukin (IL-6), Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), improved pulmonary edema, and enhanced arterioles ability to vasoconstrict in response to hemorrhage in animal models, and (3) that the addition of the internal physiologic parameters (inflammatory cytokines) to New Injury Severity Score (NISS - a marker of the external anatomical insult) significantly improves the ability to predict hospital length of stay of trauma patients when compared to NISS alone. The investigator's group is the first to use an integrative approach that combines the external anatomic injury data with the internal physiologic response for accurate prediction of a patient's clinical outcome. Therefore, if the investigators apply this same mindset to treatment, the investigators can improve the trauma patients' care by addressing both parameters as opposed to solely focusing on the external injury as done in the past. The ability to modify post-traumatic physiologic response via short-term administration of an NSAID may lead to improved patient outcomes.

Over the last decade, clinicians have remained puzzled over the safety of NSAID administration after fracture in terms of bone union. In addition, given the current landscape for the opioid epidemic in the United States, alternative non-opioid pain management during acute trauma has the potential to reduce opioid consumption and represents a pivotal component of multimodal analgesia strategy.