Exclusion criteria
death, traumatic injuries, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic intrabdominal infections, postoperative bleeding, DCL, deaths, trauma
POSTOPERATIVE BLEEDING
Patients were excluded if the time between the occurrence of his/her traumatic injuries and the randomization was longer than four hours, had a severe traumatic brain injury, and had a high probability of death in the first 48 h. Although the treating surgeon subjectively determined this, the decision was based on what is known about the epidemiology of deaths after trauma [Patients were also excluded if the indications for performing a DCL were different from the initial trauma (i.e., DCL in the context of post-traumatic intrabdominal infections, patients in whom the abdomen was closed at the index surgery but required an emergent relaparotomy for postoperative bleeding or control of contamination). Pregnant women were also excluded.