Does ethanol affect the reliability of pelvic bone examination in blunt trauma?

Pelvic fracture

“…In pediatric blunt trauma patients, however, the physical examination is less reliable, with sensitivities of only 59 -69% (9,12). Preliminary data suggest that alcohol intoxication may not affect the sensitivity of the exam in alert and appropriate patients (13). Thus, in this subset of clinically stable and alert adult patients, a normal physical examination obviates the need for pelvic imaging in the acute setting; whereas an examination suggestive of pelvic injury in a stable patient may be directly followed by a pelvic CT scan without a PXR.…”

Validation of a decision instrument to limit pelvic radiography in blunt trauma

“…However, certain common threads can be found: physical examination findings, mental status, and presence of intoxication. Additionally, Tien and Dufel, in their retrospective case-control study, cited distracting injury as the most common cause of a missed fracture (5).…”

The Reliability of the Pre‐hospital Physical Examination of the Pelvis: A Retrospective, Multicenter Study

“…The early detection of pelvic fractures plays an important role in the initial management of multiply injured trauma patients. The available data uniformly indicate that a thorough clinical examination will reliably detect a relevant and unstable fracture of the pelvis and, moreover, that overlooked pelvic fractures are generally minor and/or stable fractures not requiring immediate treatment [1–8]. However, all of these studies were performed in the inner hospital environment.…”

“…thorough clinical examination will reliably detect a relevant and unstable fracture of the pelvis and, moreover, that overlooked pelvic fractures are generally minor and/or stable fractures not requiring immediate treatment [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. However, all of these studies were performed in the inner hospital environment.…”