Abdominal Sonography in Examination of Children with Blunt Abdominal Trauma

Abstract

The low sensitivity and negative predictive value of sonography when assessing for either fluid alone or fluid and organ injury suggest that a normal screening sonography alone in the setting of blunt abdominal trauma fails to confidently exclude the presence of an intraabdominal injury.

Experience with focused abdominal sonography for trauma (FAST) in 313 pediatric patients

“…Keywords: abdomen; injuries; children; blunt abdominal trauma; ultrasonography B lunt abdominal injury is common in trauma patients, and in children, most abdominal injuries are blunt. 1 To exclude abdominal injuries in adult patients, especially when consciousness is altered, and in pediatric patients, physical examination is frequently unreliable and imaging studies are required. 2 Focused abdominal sonography for trauma (FAST), whose main purpose is to detect free abdominal fluid as evidence of hemoperitoneum, has gained popularity in the primary assessment of trauma patients.…”

“…Several reports on the utility of FAST in children have been published, with conflicting results. 1,[3][4][5][6][7] We present our experience with FAST in pediatric patients with blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) and assess the value of this tool in the diagnosis and management of pediatric trauma patients.…”

Evaluation of three phases computed tomography scan findings in blunt abdominal trauma

“…5,6 Intraabdominal hemorrhage is a major cause of death caused by blunt abdominal trauma. 7 Many of these injuries are preventable with population training and fastening safety belts. 1 With regard to the importance of this issue, early detection and taking action can significantly improve the prognosis of trauma patients.…”

Screening for occult abdominal trauma in children with suspected physical abuse

“…However, other studies indicate that identification of pancreatic trauma by CT may be particularly difficult. [21][22][23] Therefore, it is likely that some pancreatic injuries were present despite negative CT scans. This finding suggests that our estimates of OAT may be higher than our conservative estimate of 2% noted above.…”