Factors influencing the risk of infection after trauma.

Infection after injury is characterized by the degree of contamination, the duration of attendant hypotension, and the delay in definitive surgical treatment. Factors further influencing this outcome include the age of the patient and, in most U.S. urban centers, the general health of the patient. Current antibiotic treatment of such patients may soon be assisted by selective and sequential immunostimulants, which are increasingly more specific for defined defects in host defenses after injury. An ever more significant contribution to morbidity and mortality on trauma services is pneumonia, which is often caused by gram-negative aerobes. The design of clinically significant trials with respect to infection in the injury patient will be more difficult and complex.