Use of the WBSI Questionnaire in a Study Group of Patients with Polytrauma During the Period 2015-2021

Abstract

The present study started from empathy towards the patient and the fact that medicine is always looking for optimal solutions for the patient's well-being. The state of health, however, is not limited to the physical body, but the psychological mental status, the environment, the recovery time must be taken into account. The medical act is not limited to the life-saving gesture applied at a given moment.  Polytrauma requires prompt and safe medical gestures, but the patient does not recover from this tragic episode in the near future. Time, patience, attention, coping mechanisms, psychological wellbeing, and a conducive environment are needed to compete with the previous medical act in order to recover fully and as quickly as possible. The length of hospitalization means financial costs, but the full recovery of the patient, the mental well-being, translates into hidden costs, borne by both the patient and the health system.

Based on these ideas, the present study tried to add value to health care. Considering polytrauma as a possible trigger for PTSD, considering recovery as closely related to coping mechanisms, the study aimed to find the linking element in this "polytrauma-recovery" pathway. Why is recovery easier in some cases? Why does the number of hospital days vary in the context of similar physical injuries? Why do cases of higher severity recover more easily than others with lower severity scores?

This study set out to explain how trauma and its psychological implications (rumination, nightmares, anxiety, obsessive thoughts about the injury) may be blamed for a more difficult recovery.