UAB was well represented at the 2021 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress of Acute Care Surgery, with three Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery assistant professors presenting orally.

Two faculty members, the most allowed from a single institution, gave scientific podium presentations: Zain Hashmi, M.D., and Assistant Trauma Medical Director Parker Hu, M.D., FACS. Jonathan Black, M.D., was a quickshot presenter.

Three posters were also presented. Black presented on “Image Based Detection and Analysis of Stroke Due to Blunt Cerebrovascular Injury,” which investigated the stroke rate and potentially preventable stroke rate of patients admitted with BCVI. The authors found that stroke occurs in 7.6% of patients admitted with BCVI. Two-thirds of those strokes are evident on admission, but one-third occur after admission, relatively early, making it essential to quickly administer preventative treatment.

Hashmi presented on “Characteristics and Outcomes of Pre-Hospital Tourniquet Use for Trauma in the United States,” which examined data and found that prehospital tourniquet use by the EMS in the United States is associated with lower scene-time and higher survival-to-hospital.

Hu presented on “It’s Time to Look in the Mirror: Individual Surgeon Outcomes after Emergent Trauma Laparotomy,” which examined outcomes by surgeon for those who routinely perform ETL. The co-authored abstract stated that tracking performance on a surgeon-by-surgeon level is a necessary natural progression for quality assurance programs in trauma centers.

The 80th Annual Meeting of the AAST was held in Atlanta this year from September 29 – October 1. Faculty also had roles as featured speakers during lunch breakout sessions and as primary reviewers for oral presentations.

“This was probably our most successful meeting in terms of representation across the platform of the AAST and representative of the growing recognition of our program nationally,” said Jeffrey Kerby, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. “I’m very proud of all the faculty who presented their outstanding work at this meeting.”

Multiple UAB Surgery faculty were co-authors on the abstracts and posters presented. See below.