Trauma & Critical Care Surgery Services: Conditions & Treatments

Conditions

The trauma and critical care team at UCI Medical Center, home to Orange County's only combined Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, are experts at treating the full range of serious and life-threatening injuries, including:

Spleen and liver injuries

Injuries to the spleen and liver are the most common abdominal injuries after blunt trauma, and often result from a car crash or fall.

Traumatic brain injury

The most common injury requiring intensive care is traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion. We work closely with neurosurgeons to provide swift and aggressive state-of-the-art care for TBI.

Post-operative pulmonary failure

Our team also treats non-trauma patients who have critical illnesses. Our emphasis is on leading-edge ventilator techniques, aggressive pain management, prompt nutritional care and comprehensive critical care.

We also treat:

• Motor vehicle crash injuries
• Falls
• Pedestrians injuries from motor vehicles
• Significant sports injuries
• Assaults (blunt force and penetrating injuries)

Treatments

Spleen and liver injuries

One of the most dramatic developments in trauma care is the ability to treat spleen and liver injuries without surgical intervention. This requires careful use of blood products and interventional radiology.

With this approach, we have improved survival rates while decreasing the complications that can accompany such injuries.

Although some patients may still require surgery, the rate of operations for patients with spleen or liver injuries has decreased from 100 percent to 15 percent.

State-of-the-art care

The trauma and critical care team at UCI Health oversees patient care in our intensive care units (ICU) for neurological, burn and adult and pediatric surgical patients. All have the latest in patient-monitoring equipment.

All of our trauma surgeons are board-certified surgical intensivists who are able to care for the specific needs of trauma patients. Every day in our ICUs, we provide state-of-the-art care, including:

• Complex ventilator strategies to limit ventilator-induced injury to lungs
• Multiple ventilator modes, including oscillating ventilators and pressure-control modes
• Continuous monitoring so a patient can be removed from the ventilator at the earliest opportunity
• Early and aggressive nutritional care to allow the body to heal
• Preventive critical care to decrease complications such as pneumonia and blood clots
• Bedside ultrasound monitoring

For less severe injuries, or after release from our intensive care units, you may be admitted to other units at the medical center for additional care by the trauma team or other specialty services, such as orthopaedic surgery or neurosurgery.

Questions? Please contact us at 714-456-8008.