Critical Violent Injury in the United States: A Review and Call to Action

Objective: This review provides an overview of what is known about violent injury requiring critical care, including child physical abuse, homicide, youth violence, intimate partner violence, self-directed injury, firearm-related injury, and elder physical abuse. Data Sources: We searched PubMed, Scopus, Ovid Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews, and the National Guideline Clearinghouse. We also included surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Trauma Data Bank. Study Selection: Search criteria limited to articles in English and reports of humans, utilizing the following search terms: intentional violence, intentional harm, violence, crime victims, domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, geriatric abuse, nonaccidental injury, nonaccidental trauma, and intentional injury in combination with trauma centers, critical care, or emergency medicine. Additionally, we included relevant articles discovered during review of the articles identified through this search. Data Extraction: Two hundred one abstracts were reviewed for relevance, and 168 abstracts were selected and divided into eight categories (child physical abuse, homicide, youth violence, intimate partner violence, self-directed injury, firearm-related injury, and elder physical abuse) for complete review by pairs of authors. In our final review, we included 155 articles (139 articles selected from our search strategy, 16 additional highly relevant articles, many published after we conducted our formal search). Data Synthesis: A minority of articles (7%) provided information specific to violent injury requiring critical care. Given what is known about violent injury in general, the burden of critical violent injury is likely substantial, yet little is known about violent injury requiring critical care. Conclusions: Significant gaps in knowledge exist and must be addressed by meaningful, sustained tracking and study of the epidemiology, clinical care, outcomes, and costs of critical violent injury. Research must aim for not only information but also action, including effective interventions to prevent and mitigate the consequences of critical violent injury.