Analysis of the necessity of routine tests in trauma patients in the emergency department

BACKGROUND The necessity of routine tests as regarded in the Advanced Trauma Life Support protocols has become controversial in recent years. The aim of this study was to analyze the necessity of routine tests in trauma patients. METHODS This was a prospective study. A total of 103 blunt trauma patients aged between 15 and 65 years who presented to the emergency department with major trauma, Glasgow Coma Scale of 15 and Revised Trauma Score of 12 were admitted to the study. RESULTS The average age of the patients (30.1% female, 69.9% male) was 35 +/- 12.97 years. A total of 72.8% of the patients presented for motor vehicle crashes, 12.6% for pedestrian injury and 14.6% for fall from a height. All of the routine tests were evaluated separately. With the exception of cervical examination-lateral cervical X-ray results and pelvic examination-complete blood count and urinalysis test results, significant relations were determined between the reason for requiring a test and the results of the other tests (complete blood count, lateral cervical X-ray and abdominal ultrasonography). CONCLUSION According to our study, biochemical tests, anterior-posterior chest X-ray and anterior-posterior pelvic X-ray can be ordered as targeted tests. Conducting targeted tests will reduce costs and workload.