Causes of death after blunt trauma.

A retrospective analysis was performed of 89 patients, dead of blunt trauma. Not included in the study were patients with only burns, only head injury, or only a femoral neck fracture and patients who died before or within 1 hr of admission. Correlations were sought between time of death, cause of death, and severity of injury. Death occurring more than 7 days postinjury was caused by remote organ failure associated with sepsis in 88% of the cases. The group of patients who died from sepsis did not significantly differ fom the groups dead from other causes as to age or injury severity. The only distinctive feature of this group was a higher average hospital trauma index for 'extremity injury.' Inadequate immobilization of major fractures in the multiple-injured patient could be a factor leading to late death from sepsis.