PROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF BLUNT ABDOMINAL TRAUMA BY MULTIDETECTOR COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

BACKGROUND One of the most important aspects of blunt abdominal trauma is the need for a speedy evaluation and the resource intensive management that is required. It may be noted that the mortality, morbidity and the associated costs are substantially high. CT is the technique of choice for initial examination of hemodynamically stable patients after blunt abdominal trauma. We wanted to study different traumatic pathologies of the abdomen in blunt trauma with the aid of multidetector CT and to grade the organ injuries as per the "Organ Injury Scale (OIS)". METHODS A prospective observational study was done on patients with abdominal trauma between May 2015 and May 2017. A total of 70 patients were included in the study on whom CT was performed. RESULTS 70 patients with history of blunt abdominal injury were evaluated. The average age of the group was 30.5 +/- 29.4 (range from 5-70) with the sex distribution in the group being 54: 16 (M: F). 46 (66%) of the 70 patients were admitted due to road traffic accidents (RTA), making it the most common form of blunt abdominal injury in this study; followed by 7 (10%) due to fall from heights. Spleen was the organ that was injured the most which amounted to 19 (41%) followed by the liver which accounted for 11 (23%) and kidney which accounted for 6 (13%). CONCLUSIONS Intravenous Contrast Enhanced MDCT is the imaging modality of choice in effectively evaluating blunt trauma abdomen in haemodynamically stable patients. MDCT abdomen not only detects intra-abdominal injury but it also detects other associated important injuries such as haemothorax, lung injuries, fractures of lower ribs, fractures of spine and pelvis.