Blast Lung Injury Severity Score
Stratifies primary blast lung injuries into three categories to guide ventilator treatment.
Use in patients who have sustained blast injury and have respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, cyanosis, dyspnea, hemoptysis).
Result:
Why did you develop the BLI Severity Score? Was there a particular clinical experience or patient encounter that inspired you to create this tool for clinicians?
We developed BLI after analyzing results of victims from two explosions in close space. The severity of lung injury developed in purpose to adjust appropriate respiratory therapy in severely injured victims.
What pearls, pitfalls and/or tips do you have for users of the BLI Severity Score? Do you know of cases when it has been applied, interpreted, or used inappropriately?
The patients with high BLI required advance respiratory therapy. Regular conventional mechanical ventilation was not effective.
What recommendations do you have for doctors once they have applied the BLI Severity Score? Are there any adjustments or updates you would make to the score based on new data or practice changes?
We had a bad experience trying getting patient on cardiopulmonary bypass due to extensive intrapulmonary bleeding.
How do you use the BLI Severity Score in your own clinical practice? Can you give an example of a scenario in which you use it?
We used BLI to select patients required high frequency ventilation.
Reuven Pizov, MD, is a professor and chairman of anesthesiology and CCM at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Dr. Pizov has authored several peer-reviewed studies in the field of anesthesiology.
- Jennie Kim, MD
