Earthquake victims in focus: a cross-sectional examination of trauma and management in intensive care unit

After the Kahramanmaras earthquake of February 6, 2023, the disaster of the century, a significant number of victims were admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). In this study, we aimed to share the characteristics and management of critical earthquake victims and shed light on our experiences as intensivists in future earthquakes.

The study included 62 earthquake victims in two tertiary ICUs. Demographic characteristics, laboratory findings, clinical characteristics, trauma and disease severity scores, treatments administered to patients, and the clinical course of the patients were recorded retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups, survivors and nonsurvivors, according to 7-day mortality and into two groups according to the duration of their stay under the rubble: those who remained under the rubble for 72 hours or less and those who remained under the rubble for more than 72 hours. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the best cutoff value for the ‘Circulation, Respiration, Abdomen, Motor, and Speech’ (CRAMS) score.

The median age of the 62 patients included in the study was 35.5 (23-53) years. The median length of stay under the rubble for the patients was 30.5 (12-64.5) hours. The patient was transferred to the ward with a maximum duration of 222 hours under the rubble. The limb (75.8%) was the most common location of trauma in patients admitted to the ICU. Crush syndrome developed in 96.8% of the patients. There was a positive correlation between the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) and myoglobin, serum lactate, and uric acid levels (r = 0.372, p = 0.003; r = 0.307, p = 0.016; r = 0.428, p = 0.001, respectively). The best cutoff of the CRAMS score to predict in-7-day mortality was < 4.5 with 0.94 area under the curve (AUC); application of this threshold resulted in 75% sensitivity and 96.3% specificity.

Search and rescue operations should continue for at least ten days after an earthquake. The CRAMS score can be used to assess trauma severity and predict mortality in critically ill earthquake victims.