Christiana Care Health System physician receives grant for platelet transfusions study

Christiana Care Health System’s Medical Director of Trauma and Neurocritical Care, Mark Cipolle, M.D., Ph.D., is the recipient of a $130,000 research grant from the National Trauma Institute to study platelet transfusion in patients with brain hemorrhage, the most common cause of death and disability after injury or stroke.

“Antiplatelet medications used to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in trauma patients likely worsens a hemorrhage once it has occurred,” says Dr. Cipolle. “We are grateful to the National Trauma Institute because this study will assess the potential benefit and safety of providing platelet transfusions to patients suffering brain hemorrhage while taking antiplatelet medication.”

Christiana Care is an ideal location for the study because it provides superior, around-the-clock trauma and emergency services to a large number of severely injured patients. Christiana Hospital is designated by the state of Delaware and verified by the American College of Surgeons as the state’s only Level I trauma center for both adults and children, the highest capability possible for a trauma center. In 2010, Christiana Care treated more than 165,000 patients in its Emergency Departments and admitted 3,800 trauma patients, of which 715 had traumatic brain injuries.

The study begins this year with the possibility of preliminary results presented at the NTI’s Annual Trauma Symposium in 2012.

The National Trauma Institute is a non-profit organization that assembles public and private resources to support trauma research across the country, sets a national trauma research agenda and supports military and civilian innovation and collaboration in trauma care and research.

For more information, visit www.nationaltraumainstitute.org.