Risk Factors Associated with Lower Urinary Tract Injuries in Traumatic Pelvic Fractures

Abstract

Background: Bladder and urethral injuries associated with pelvic fractures are uncommon and are missed at initial assessment in up to 23% of cases. Missed lower urinary tract injuries have a significant impact on patient morbidity, if not identified early. This study aims to associate mechanisms of traumatic pelvic ring fractures with bladder and/or urethral injuries to determine factors that may increase odds of injury.

Delayed Presentation of Bladder Rupture Presenting as Ascites and Acute Kidney Injury

“…The urinary bladder is usually protected by pelvic structures owing to its deep location in the pelvis with a low injury rate of 0.87 to 1.6% among the blunt abdominal trauma cases [1,2]. Mechanisms of bladder injuries includes direct force towards a distended bladder, shearing force secondary to pelvic fracture, penetrating trauma and iatrogenic causes [2][3][4]. Traumatic urinary bladder injuries can be further classified into bladder contusion, extra peritoneal rupture (60%), intraperitoneal rupture (25%), and combined intraperitoneal and extra peritoneal ruptures (6%) [1,5,6].…”