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Firearms’ injury toll of $3 billion just ‘a drop in the bucket’
SAN DIEGO – The true impact of firearms injuries may be greatly underestimated, according to a study presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress.
An analysis released earlier this month estimated that firearms injuries cost nearly $3 billion a year in emergency department and inpatient treatment costs. The real cost is likely to be 10-20 times higher, said the lead author of the study, Faiz Gani, MD, a research fellow with the Johns Hopkins Surgery Center for Outcomes Research, Baltimore.
“This is just a drop in the bucket,” Dr. Gani said in an interview at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons. 
Dr. Gani and his colleagues launched their study (Health Affairs 2017;36[10]:1729-38) to better understand the cost of firearms injuries, including nonfatal and accidental injuries.
Most estimates of the cost of firearm injuries are outdated or focused on states or single trauma centers, he said. “Contemporary [costs] for emergency rooms are unknown,” he said. “Also, the numbers come down and shoot up. It’s important to continually study this.”
The statistics are especially important to surgeons, who handle these injuries. “A lot of times the surgeon is the primary health care provider if the patient is injured severely. It’s important that we as surgeons know what’s going on.”
The researchers retrospectively analyzed data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project for the years 2006-2014. They identified 150,930 patients who appeared alive in emergency departments over that period with firearms injuries, and they estimated the total weighted number at 704,916.
They found that the incidence of firearms injury admissions actually fell during 2006-2013 (from 27.9 visits per 100,000 people to 21.5, P < .001) but bumped up by 23.7% to 26.6 during 2013-2014 (P < .001).
Not surprisingly, more men were injured than women: 45.8 firearms-injured men per 100,000 patients presenting at emergency departments, compared with 5.5 firearms-injured women. Assaults (49.5%) and accidents (35.3%) accounted for most cases, followed by attempted suicides (5.3%) and legal intervention (2.4%).
Those who were assaulted had a higher likelihood of being poor, while those who tried to kill themselves were more likely to have the highest incomes among firearms-injured patients.
The average costs of emergency and inpatient care for patients injured by firearms were $5,254 and $95,887, respectively, collectively amounting to about $2.8 billion each year.
Dr. Gani mentioned that the estimation of the cost and impact of firearms injuries don’t account for people who died of firearms injuries before reaching the emergency department, he says, including patients who committed suicide and died at home.
The cost estimates also don’t take follow-up care, rehabilitation, and lifelong disability into account. The surgical portion of the cost is likely to be much higher because the study doesn’t take future surgical procedures into account, he said.
Based on estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the impact of the injuries, Dr. Gani argued that the true annual cost could be 10 or 20 times the nearly $3 billion estimated by the study.
Discussant Elliott R. Haut, MD, FACS, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, agreed that the study estimates of cost and impact estimated in the study represent a small part of a larger toll. Some families and individuals can pay those costs more than once. He recalls hearing from family members of firearm victims who recognize him because they’ve been at the hospital for other shooting incidents. “We’ve all heard someone say, ‘You were here the last time when my brother/cousin/uncle was shot,’ ” he said.
Future research should focus on better understanding the long-term cost of firearm injuries and the influence of socioeconomics and demographics, Dr. Gani said.
Dr. Gani and Dr. Haut reported no relevant disclosures.
SAN DIEGO – The true impact of firearms injuries may be greatly underestimated, according to a study presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress.
An analysis released earlier this month estimated that firearms injuries cost nearly $3 billion a year in emergency department and inpatient treatment costs. The real cost is likely to be 10-20 times higher, said the lead author of the study, Faiz Gani, MD, a research fellow with the Johns Hopkins Surgery Center for Outcomes Research, Baltimore.
“This is just a drop in the bucket,” Dr. Gani said in an interview at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Gani and his colleagues launched their study (Health Affairs 2017;36[10]:1729-38) to better understand the cost of firearms injuries, including nonfatal and accidental injuries.
Most estimates of the cost of firearm injuries are outdated or focused on states or single trauma centers, he said. “Contemporary [costs] for emergency rooms are unknown,” he said. “Also, the numbers come down and shoot up. It’s important to continually study this.”
The statistics are especially important to surgeons, who handle these injuries. “A lot of times the surgeon is the primary health care provider if the patient is injured severely. It’s important that we as surgeons know what’s going on.”
The researchers retrospectively analyzed data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project for the years 2006-2014. They identified 150,930 patients who appeared alive in emergency departments over that period with firearms injuries, and they estimated the total weighted number at 704,916.
They found that the incidence of firearms injury admissions actually fell during 2006-2013 (from 27.9 visits per 100,000 people to 21.5, P < .001) but bumped up by 23.7% to 26.6 during 2013-2014 (P < .001).
Not surprisingly, more men were injured than women: 45.8 firearms-injured men per 100,000 patients presenting at emergency departments, compared with 5.5 firearms-injured women. Assaults (49.5%) and accidents (35.3%) accounted for most cases, followed by attempted suicides (5.3%) and legal intervention (2.4%).
Those who were assaulted had a higher likelihood of being poor, while those who tried to kill themselves were more likely to have the highest incomes among firearms-injured patients.
The average costs of emergency and inpatient care for patients injured by firearms were $5,254 and $95,887, respectively, collectively amounting to about $2.8 billion each year.
Dr. Gani mentioned that the estimation of the cost and impact of firearms injuries don’t account for people who died of firearms injuries before reaching the emergency department, he says, including patients who committed suicide and died at home.
The cost estimates also don’t take follow-up care, rehabilitation, and lifelong disability into account. The surgical portion of the cost is likely to be much higher because the study doesn’t take future surgical procedures into account, he said.
Based on estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the impact of the injuries, Dr. Gani argued that the true annual cost could be 10 or 20 times the nearly $3 billion estimated by the study.
Discussant Elliott R. Haut, MD, FACS, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, agreed that the study estimates of cost and impact estimated in the study represent a small part of a larger toll. Some families and individuals can pay those costs more than once. He recalls hearing from family members of firearm victims who recognize him because they’ve been at the hospital for other shooting incidents. “We’ve all heard someone say, ‘You were here the last time when my brother/cousin/uncle was shot,’ ” he said.
Future research should focus on better understanding the long-term cost of firearm injuries and the influence of socioeconomics and demographics, Dr. Gani said.
Dr. Gani and Dr. Haut reported no relevant disclosures.
SAN DIEGO – The true impact of firearms injuries may be greatly underestimated, according to a study presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress.
An analysis released earlier this month estimated that firearms injuries cost nearly $3 billion a year in emergency department and inpatient treatment costs. The real cost is likely to be 10-20 times higher, said the lead author of the study, Faiz Gani, MD, a research fellow with the Johns Hopkins Surgery Center for Outcomes Research, Baltimore.
“This is just a drop in the bucket,” Dr. Gani said in an interview at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Gani and his colleagues launched their study (Health Affairs 2017;36[10]:1729-38) to better understand the cost of firearms injuries, including nonfatal and accidental injuries.
Most estimates of the cost of firearm injuries are outdated or focused on states or single trauma centers, he said. “Contemporary [costs] for emergency rooms are unknown,” he said. “Also, the numbers come down and shoot up. It’s important to continually study this.”
The statistics are especially important to surgeons, who handle these injuries. “A lot of times the surgeon is the primary health care provider if the patient is injured severely. It’s important that we as surgeons know what’s going on.”
The researchers retrospectively analyzed data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project for the years 2006-2014. They identified 150,930 patients who appeared alive in emergency departments over that period with firearms injuries, and they estimated the total weighted number at 704,916.
They found that the incidence of firearms injury admissions actually fell during 2006-2013 (from 27.9 visits per 100,000 people to 21.5, P < .001) but bumped up by 23.7% to 26.6 during 2013-2014 (P < .001).
Not surprisingly, more men were injured than women: 45.8 firearms-injured men per 100,000 patients presenting at emergency departments, compared with 5.5 firearms-injured women. Assaults (49.5%) and accidents (35.3%) accounted for most cases, followed by attempted suicides (5.3%) and legal intervention (2.4%).
Those who were assaulted had a higher likelihood of being poor, while those who tried to kill themselves were more likely to have the highest incomes among firearms-injured patients.
The average costs of emergency and inpatient care for patients injured by firearms were $5,254 and $95,887, respectively, collectively amounting to about $2.8 billion each year.
Dr. Gani mentioned that the estimation of the cost and impact of firearms injuries don’t account for people who died of firearms injuries before reaching the emergency department, he says, including patients who committed suicide and died at home.
The cost estimates also don’t take follow-up care, rehabilitation, and lifelong disability into account. The surgical portion of the cost is likely to be much higher because the study doesn’t take future surgical procedures into account, he said.
Based on estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the impact of the injuries, Dr. Gani argued that the true annual cost could be 10 or 20 times the nearly $3 billion estimated by the study.
Discussant Elliott R. Haut, MD, FACS, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, agreed that the study estimates of cost and impact estimated in the study represent a small part of a larger toll. Some families and individuals can pay those costs more than once. He recalls hearing from family members of firearm victims who recognize him because they’ve been at the hospital for other shooting incidents. “We’ve all heard someone say, ‘You were here the last time when my brother/cousin/uncle was shot,’ ” he said.
Future research should focus on better understanding the long-term cost of firearm injuries and the influence of socioeconomics and demographics, Dr. Gani said.
Dr. Gani and Dr. Haut reported no relevant disclosures.
AT THE ACS CLINICAL CONGRESS
VIDEO: Researchers beginning to explore microbiome’s effect on surgical outcomes
SAN DIEGO – Surgery seems to stimulate abrupt changes in both the skin and gut microbiome, which in some patients may increase the risk of surgical-site infections and anastomotic leaks. With that knowledge, researchers are exploring the very first steps toward a presurgical microbiome optimization protocol, Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS, said at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
It’s very early in the journey, said Dr. Nelson, the Fred C. Andersen Professor of Surgery at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. The path is not straightforward because the human microbiome appears to be nearly as individually unique as the human fingerprint, so presurgical protocols might have to be individually tailored to each patient.
Dr. Nelson comoderated a session exploring this topic with John Alverdy, MD, FACS, of the University of Chicago. The panel discussed human and animal studies suggesting that the stress of surgery, when combined with subclinical ischemia and any baseline physiologic stress (chronic illness or radiation, for example), can cause some commensals to begin producing collagenase – a change that endangers even surgically sound anastomoses. The skin microbiome is altered as well, with areas around abdominal incisions beginning to express gut flora, which increase the risk of a surgical-site infection.
Through diet or other presurgical interventions, Dr. Nelson said in a video interview, it might be possible to optimize the microbiome and reduce the chances of some of these occurrences.
She had no financial disclosures.
On Twitter @Alz_Gal
SAN DIEGO – Surgery seems to stimulate abrupt changes in both the skin and gut microbiome, which in some patients may increase the risk of surgical-site infections and anastomotic leaks. With that knowledge, researchers are exploring the very first steps toward a presurgical microbiome optimization protocol, Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS, said at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
It’s very early in the journey, said Dr. Nelson, the Fred C. Andersen Professor of Surgery at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. The path is not straightforward because the human microbiome appears to be nearly as individually unique as the human fingerprint, so presurgical protocols might have to be individually tailored to each patient.
Dr. Nelson comoderated a session exploring this topic with John Alverdy, MD, FACS, of the University of Chicago. The panel discussed human and animal studies suggesting that the stress of surgery, when combined with subclinical ischemia and any baseline physiologic stress (chronic illness or radiation, for example), can cause some commensals to begin producing collagenase – a change that endangers even surgically sound anastomoses. The skin microbiome is altered as well, with areas around abdominal incisions beginning to express gut flora, which increase the risk of a surgical-site infection.
Through diet or other presurgical interventions, Dr. Nelson said in a video interview, it might be possible to optimize the microbiome and reduce the chances of some of these occurrences.
She had no financial disclosures.
On Twitter @Alz_Gal
SAN DIEGO – Surgery seems to stimulate abrupt changes in both the skin and gut microbiome, which in some patients may increase the risk of surgical-site infections and anastomotic leaks. With that knowledge, researchers are exploring the very first steps toward a presurgical microbiome optimization protocol, Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS, said at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
It’s very early in the journey, said Dr. Nelson, the Fred C. Andersen Professor of Surgery at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. The path is not straightforward because the human microbiome appears to be nearly as individually unique as the human fingerprint, so presurgical protocols might have to be individually tailored to each patient.
Dr. Nelson comoderated a session exploring this topic with John Alverdy, MD, FACS, of the University of Chicago. The panel discussed human and animal studies suggesting that the stress of surgery, when combined with subclinical ischemia and any baseline physiologic stress (chronic illness or radiation, for example), can cause some commensals to begin producing collagenase – a change that endangers even surgically sound anastomoses. The skin microbiome is altered as well, with areas around abdominal incisions beginning to express gut flora, which increase the risk of a surgical-site infection.
Through diet or other presurgical interventions, Dr. Nelson said in a video interview, it might be possible to optimize the microbiome and reduce the chances of some of these occurrences.
She had no financial disclosures.
On Twitter @Alz_Gal
AT THE ACS CLINICAL CONGRESS
