Annually in the United States, approximately 30 million people require treatment for traumatic injuries in emergency departments. Two million of these patients require hospitalization, with several hundred thousand ultimately dying, often due to extreme blood loss. Importantly, these traumatic injuries are the leading cause of death and disability for children and young adults under the age of 44, with the total cost of trauma in the U.S. approaching $260 billion each year.
Despite advances in pre-hospital care, early resuscitation, surgical interventions and intensive care monitoring aimed at the primary traumatic injury, many survivors never recover. A significant cause of this mortality and morbidity is thought due to potentially preventable secondary injury, namely oxidant injury, inflammation, and apoptosis beginning in the first few hours after the severe traumatic event.
In spite of the current bleak outlook for many of these patients, a series of animal investigations have uncovered a promising solution to the problem of the secondary injury seen in hemorrhagic shock and other similar processes, namely the early administration of estrogen, a strong anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic compound.
Based on encouraging results from animal studies, the investigators hypothesize that early administration of IV Premarin® in patients with hemorrhagic shock will safely reduce secondary injury, and improve survival.
