Layla Aboukhater
MD Student, expected graduation Spring 2025
MBA, expected graduation 2025
All Publications
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Prospective study of long-term quality-of-life after rib fractures.
Surgery
1800
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Long-term quality-of-life after rib fractures remains understudied. We aimed to evaluate quality-of-life of patients who had rib fractures 1 year after discharge. We hypothesized that patients with rib fractures, even as an isolated injury, have suboptimal long-term quality-of-life.METHODS: We prospectively enrolled adults admitted to our level 1 trauma center with acute rib fractures. Primary outcome was quality-of-life at 1 year after discharge, characterized using the revised trauma-specific quality-of-life questionnaire and a supplemental survey. Secondary analysis evaluated association between baseline frailty (measured using the Rib Fracture Frailty Index) and quality-of-life. Patients with low versus moderate frailty risk underwent full matching and linear mixed model analysis.RESULTS: We enrolled 139 patients, among whom 72 (52%) completed 1-year surveys. Patients reported excellent emotional well-being (median [interquartile range]: 4.8 [3.7-5.0]) and functional engagement (median [interquartile range]: 5.0 [4.3-5.0]) but poor physical well-being and recovery (median [interquartile range]: 3.2 [2.8-3.6]). Nearly 40% of patients reported some degree of rib pain, and 29% had not returned to preinjury working capacity. Patients with and without isolated rib fractures reported similar median revised trauma-specific quality-of-life scores. We did not find statistically significant association between low versus moderate frailty and any quality-of-life domain, but no patients in our cohort had high frailty risk and our study was underpowered to detect this association.CONCLUSION: Rib fractures are associated with suboptimal quality-of-life 1 year after discharge, even after isolated injury. Our sample size was limited, but our findings highlight persistent long-term consequences of rib fractures despite advances in inpatient management. Patients should be counseled on the potential for prolonged convalescence.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.surg.2021.11.026
View details for PubMedID 34969527
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Refugee access to COVID-19 vaccines in Lebanon
LANCET
2021; 397 (10288): 1884
View details for Web of Science ID 000652556000019
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Practical Computer Vision Application to Compute Total Body Surface Area Burn: Reappraising a Fundamental Burn Injury Formula in the Modern Era.
JAMA surgery
2021
Abstract
Critical burn management decisions rely on accurate percent total body surface area (%TBSA) burn estimation. Existing %TBSA burn estimation models (eg, Lund-Browder chart and rule of nines) were derived from a linear formula and a limited number of individuals a century ago and do not reflect the range of body habitus of the modern population.To develop a practical %TBSA burn estimation tool that accounts for exact burn injury pattern, sex, and body habitus.This population-based cohort study evaluated the efficacy of a computer vision algorithm application in processing an adult laser body scan data set. High-resolution surface anthropometry laser body scans of 3047 North American and European adults aged 18 to 65 years from the Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource data set (1998-2001) were included. Of these, 1517 participants (49.8%) were male. Race and ethnicity data were not available for analysis. Analyses were conducted in 2020.The contributory %TBSA for 18 body regions in each individual. Mobile application for real-time %TBSA burn computation based on sex, habitus, and exact burn injury pattern.Of the 3047 individuals aged 18 to 65 years for whom body scans were available, 1517 (49.8%) were male. Wide individual variability was found in the extent to which major body regions contributed to %TBSA, especially in the torso and legs. Anterior torso %TBSA increased with increasing body habitus (mean [SD], 15.1 [0.9] to 19.1 [2.0] for male individuals; 15.1 [0.8] to 18.0 [1.7] for female individuals). This increase was attributable to increase in abdomen %TBSA (mean [SD], 5.3 [0.7] to 8.7 [1.8]) among male individuals and increase in abdomen (mean [SD], 4.6 [0.6] to 6.8 [1.7]) and pelvis (mean [SD], 1.5 [0.2] to 2.9 [0.9]) %TBSAs among female individuals. For most body regions, Lund-Browder chart and rule of nines estimates fell outside the population's measured interquartile ranges. The mobile application tested in this study, Burn Area, facilitated accurate %TBSA burn computation based on exact burn injury pattern for 10 sex and body habitus-specific models.Computer vision algorithm application to a large laser body scan data set may provide a practical tool that facilitates accurate %TBSA burn computation in the modern era.
View details for DOI 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.5848
View details for PubMedID 34817552