THE PROGNOSTIC SIGNIFICANCE OF RED CELL DISTRIBUTION WIDTH IN TRAUMATIC PATIENTS WITH ACTIVE HEMORRHAGE: IS SERIAL MEASUREMENT A NEW PERSPECTIVE?

Abstract

Aim: Trauma takes an important place among all causes of death. Red cell distribution width (RDW) is associated with
mortality in trauma, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Our aim in this study is to show whether RDW value is important in
trauma cases.
Methods: The patients were divided into 2 groups as alive and deceased. Bleeding foci were determined from the
radiological and surgical results of the patients. The results were analyzed together with the RDW.
Results: 854 of the patients, 79.5% were male (n=679). The mean age was 42.118.7 years. Of all patients, 42.7%
(n=365) were treated inpatiently. Of these patients, 16.7% (n=143) were hospitalized and followed up by orthopedics. Of the
patients, 0.9% (n=8) left voluntarily and 0.2% (n=2) died in the ED, while 1.8% (n=15) died in the hospitalized clinic.
Accordingly, the AUC was 0.781 for RDW. For the 13.6 RDW value, the sensitivity was calculated as 84.6% and the
specificity was 63.4%.
Conclusion. The decrease in hemoglobin and hematocrit values that were measured for the second time was
considered to be very good for predicting mortality, while the increase in PDW and RDW was acceptable in predicting
mortality. We think that the serial measurements of RDW yield more significant results in the light of the studies conducted
so far.