PURPOSE: Abdominal CT scan using oral and intravenous (IV) contrast is helpful in the diagnosis of intra-abdominal injuries. However, the use of oral and IV contrast delays the process of diagnosis and increases the risk of aspiration. It has also been shown that CT scan with IV contrast alone is as helpful as CT scan with oral and IV contrast and rectal CT scan in detecting abdominal injuries. Therefore, the present study aims to prospectively compare the diagnostic value of CT scan with oral and IV contrast versus CT scan with IV contrast alone in the diagnosis of blunt abdominal trauma (BAT). METHODS: Altogether 123 BAT patients, 60 (48.8%) women and 63 (51.2%) men with the mean age of (40.4 ± 18.7) years who referred to the emergency department of Imam Khomeini Educational and Medical Center in Sari, Iran (a tertiary trauma center in north of Iran) from November 2014 to March 2017 and underwent abdominal CT scans + laparotomy were investigated. Those with penetrating trauma or hemodynamically unstable patients were excluded. The participants were randomly allocated to two groups: abdominal CT scan with oral and IV contrast (n = 63) and CT scan with IV contrast alone (n = 60). No statistically significant difference was found between two groups regarding the hemodynamic parameters, age, gender, injury mechanisms (all p > 0.05). The results of CT scan were compared with that of laparotomy results. The collected data were recorded in SPSS version 22.0 for Windows. Quantitative data were presented as mean and SD. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of CT scan using oral and IV contrast in the diagnosis of BAT were estimated at 96.48 (95% CI: 90.73 - 99.92) and 92.67 (95% CI: 89.65 - 94.88), respectively; while CT scan with IV contrast alone achieved a comparable sensitivity and specificity of 96.6 (95% CI: 87.45 - 99,42 and 92.84 (95% CI: 89.88 - 95.00), respectively. CONCLUSION CT scan with IV contrast alone can be used to assess visceral injuries in BAT patients with normal hemodynamics to avoid diagnostic delay.
Male ; Humans ; Female ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating/diagnostic imaging* ; Abdominal Injuries/diagnostic imaging* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Retrospective Studies

The superior mesenteric artery (SMA) is one of the visceral branches of the abdominal aorta. It has multiple branches to supply blood and nutrition to the intestinal segment, and these form an anastomosis with each other. SMA injuries are usually classified as major visceral artery injuries, and have an incidence of <1%. The clinical manifestations of patients with SMA injuries include intra-abdominal bleeding and peritoneal irritation. The compromised blood supply can lead to intestinal ischemia and perforation. These injuries are often not diagnosed in time and have significant mortality rates of 25%‍-‍68% due to the lack of specific features (Maithel et al., 2020). Not only that, but patients with less severe trauma or no visible damage on initial examination may still have clinically significant intra-abdominal injuries (Nishijima et al., 2012). Emergency departments often encounter multiple cases that require urgent diagnosis and treatment (Li et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2021; Zhou et al., 2021), and therefore, it is imperative to diagnose and manage these rare injuries expeditiously.
Humans ; Mesenteric Artery, Superior/surgery* ; Abdominal Injuries/diagnosis* ; Intestines

Thoracic splenosis is the autotransplantation of splenic tissue in the left thoracic cavity as a result of a splenic injury. This rare pathology is usually asymptomatic and may be discovered on incidental imaging, but the diagnosis often requires invasive procedures such as surgery in order to eliminate a neoplasic origin. We report a rare symptomatic case of a 39-year-old man presenting with chest pain and multiple nodules revealed on a computed tomography scan. The patient underwent a surgical exploration and the pathological studies concluded to a thoracic splenosis. Indeed, the previous medical history of the patient revealed a left thoraco-abdominal traumatism during childhood. The aim of this paper is to emphasize that the diagnosis can now be performed using only imaging techniques such as technetium-99 sulfur colloid or labelled heat-denatured red blood cell scintigraphy to avoid unnecessary invasive procedures including thoracotomy.
Abdominal Injuries ; complications ; Adult ; Asymptomatic Diseases ; Humans ; Male ; Spleen ; injuries ; Splenectomy ; Splenosis ; diagnosis ; etiology ; pathology ; surgery ; Thoracic Diseases ; diagnosis ; etiology ; pathology ; surgery ; Thoracic Injuries ; complications ; Thoracotomy ; Unnecessary Procedures

PURPOSE: The blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) is a common emergency and is significantly associated with morbidity and mortality. Our study was conducted to achieve the goal that a new scoring system could be used for the BAT patients. METHODS: The statistical population of this study was 1000 patients with BAT referred to emergency department of Imam Hossein Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Sampling was carried out in a convenience non-random manner and continued to reach the required sample size. All the patients with BAT due to road traffic accidents, falls, and other direct blunt traumas such as punctures and kickbacks were included in the study. Exclusion criteria were after 3 months of pregnancy, under the age of 18, warfarin taking, no reliable medical history providing and penetrating trauma. The study questionnaire was based on BAT scoring system. The data were analyzed by SPSS V20 software. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to analyze the effectiveness of the new scoring system in predicting the BAT patients' outcome. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients (n = 1000) was (35.79 ± 13.09) years. The mean score of patients was (6.29 ± 5.80). Based on this scoring system, the patients were divided into three categories. The first group was patients at low risk with score of less than 8, the second group was patients at moderate risk with score of 8-12 and the third group was patients at high risk with score of 12-24. The score of 661 (66.1%) patients were low, 109 (10.9%) were moderate and 230 (23%) had a high score. The association between hip fracture and abdominal tenderness with abdominal injury was significant (p < 0.001). Cronbach's alpha was 0.76 showing the reliability of this questionnaire to predict the future of patients. CONCLUSIONS The study tool has a sensitivity to predict the BAT patients' outcome, and has a proper specificity that can be used to reduce the use of harmful modalities such as computed tomography scan.
Abdominal Injuries ; diagnosis ; Adult ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Humans ; Iran ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Prognosis ; ROC Curve ; Risk ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Trauma Severity Indices ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating ; diagnosis ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: Traumatic diaphragmatic rupture resulting from blunt trauma is usually severe. However, it is often overlooked during initial evaluation because there are no characteristic signs and symptoms. Thus, this study aimed to determine the clinical characteristics of diaphragmatic rupture caused by blunt trauma and investigate the diagnostic usefulness of diaphragmatic height index (DHI) measured using chest radiographs. METHODS: The cohort comprised patients who were admitted due to diaphragmatic rupture from blunt trauma. Patients were divided into 2 groups; the control group comprised patients with blunt trauma who were matched for age, sex, and Injury Severity Score, while the DHI group comprised patients with diaphragmatic rupture from blunt trauma. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the cutoff value of DHI for diaphragmatic injury. The sensitivity, specificity, predictability, accuracy, and likelihood ratio of the cutoff were then determined. RESULTS: A total of 60 patients were confirmed to have diaphragmatic rupture. The mean DHI in patients with diaphragmatic rupture on the right and left side were both significantly different compared to that in the control group. A DHI cutoff value of >1.31 showed 71% sensitivity and 87% specificity for diagnosing right diaphragmatic rupture, while a cutoff value of <0.43 showed 87% sensitivity and 76% specificity for diagnosing left diaphragmatic rupture. CONCLUSION: DHI can be useful in the diagnosis of diaphragmatic rupture. DHI as determined using chest radiographs in patients with blunt abdominal trauma, particularly in those ineligible for diagnostic work-up, may help in the diagnosis of diaphragmatic rupture.
Abdominal Injuries ; Cohort Studies ; Diagnosis ; Diaphragm ; Humans ; Injury Severity Score ; Multiple Trauma ; Radiography, Thoracic ; ROC Curve ; Rupture ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Duodenal injury is a serious abdominal organ injury. Duodenal fistula is one of the most serious complications in gastrointestinal surgery, which is concerned for its critical status, difficulty in treatment and high mortality. Thoracic and abdominal compound closed injury and a small part of open injury are common causes of duodenal injury. Iatrogenic or traumatic injury, malnutrition, cancer, tuberculosis, Crohn's disease etc. are common causes of duodenal fistula, however, there has been still lacking of ideal diagnosis and treatment by now. The primary treatment strategy of duodenal fistula is to determine the cause of disease and its key point is prevention, including perioperative parenteral and enteral nutrition support, improvement of hypoproteinemia actively, avoidance of stump ischemia by excessive separate duodenum intraoperatively, performance of appropriate duodenum stump suture to ensure the stump blood supply, and avoidance of postoperative input loop obstruction, postoperative stump bleeding or hematoma etc. Once duodenal fistula occurs, a simple and reasonable operation can be selected and performed after fluid prohibition, parenteral and enteral nutrition, acid suppression, enzyme inhibition, anti-infective treatment and maintaining water salt electrolyte and acid-base balance. Double tube method, duodenal decompression and peritoneal drainage can reduce duodenal fistula-related complications, and then reduce the mortality, which can save the lives of patients.
Abdominal Injuries ; complications ; Anti-Infective Agents ; therapeutic use ; Decompression, Surgical ; Digestive System Surgical Procedures ; adverse effects ; methods ; Drainage ; Duodenal Diseases ; diagnosis ; etiology ; prevention & control ; therapy ; Duodenum ; blood supply ; injuries ; surgery ; Enteral Nutrition ; Humans ; Hypoproteinemia ; therapy ; Intestinal Fistula ; diagnosis ; etiology ; prevention & control ; therapy ; Ischemia ; prevention & control ; Nutritional Support ; Parenteral Nutrition ; Postoperative Complications ; prevention & control ; therapy ; Suture Techniques ; Thoracic Injuries ; complications

OBJECTIVETo develop the prediction model of acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI) classification of critically ill patients.

METHODSThe binary channel gastrointestinal sounds (GIS) monitor system was used to gather and analyze the GIS of 60 consecutive critically ill patients who were admitted in Critical Care Medicine of PLA General Hospital from April 2015 to November 2015 (patients with chronic gastrointestinal disease or history of gastrointestinal surgery were excluded). Meanwhile, the AGI grades were evaluated according to the ESICM guidelines of AGI grading system. Correlations between GIS and AGI classification were examined with Spearman rank correlation. Then principal component analysis was performed on the significantly correlated parameters after standardization. The top 3 post-normalized main components were selected for back-propagation (BP) neural network training to establish primary AGI grade model of critically ill patients based on the neural network model.

RESULTSA total of 1 132 GIS and 333 AGI were collected from 60 patients. The number (P = 0.0005), percentage of time (P = 0.0004), mean power (P = 0.0088), maximum power (P = 0.0101) and maximum time (P = 0.0025) of GIS wave from the channel located at the stomach were negatively correlated with the AGI grades, while the parameters of GIS wave from the channel located at the intestine had no significant correlation with the AGI grades(all P > 0.05). Three main components were selected after principal component analysis of these five correlated parameters. An AGI grade network model including 9 hide layers, with a fitting degree of 0.981 64 was built by BP artificial neural network based on the analysis of these three main components of GIS. The accuracy rate of the model to predict the AGI grade was 70.83%.

CONCLUSIONThe preliminary model based on GIS in classifying AGI grade is established successfully, which can help predict the classification of AGI grade of critically ill patients.

Abdominal Injuries ; classification ; diagnosis ; Auscultation ; instrumentation ; methods ; statistics & numerical data ; Computer Simulation ; Critical Care ; methods ; Critical Illness ; classification ; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted ; instrumentation ; methods ; Diagnostic Techniques, Digestive System ; instrumentation ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Models, Biological ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Predictive Value of Tests

Inevitable immobilization after surgery on lower extremities can induce chronic constipation. Elderly diabetic women usually express ambiguous gastrointestinal symptoms and signs. We present here a case of panperitonitis developed from severe fecal impaction in an elderly diabetic woman after hand reconstruction using material harvested from the lower extremities. A 68-year-old diabetic female underwent anterolateral thigh free flap and wound revision twice on the left thumb. Three weeks after surgery, she complained about mild abdominal pain though she had daily defecation. Despite encouraging ambulation, her compliance was low. Resection of the sigmoid colon and colostomy were performed after diagnosis with bowel perforation. However, the patient went into septic shock and died with multiorgan failure after the guardians issued a DNR (do not resuscitate) order. For preventing bowel perforation, increased uptake of dietary fiber and early ambulation postoperatively should be encouraged, after even hand surgeries.
Abdominal Pain ; Aged* ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Colostomy ; Compliance ; Constipation ; Defecation ; Diabetes Complications ; Diagnosis ; Dietary Fiber ; Disabled Persons ; Early Ambulation ; Fecal Impaction ; Female ; Free Tissue Flaps* ; Hand ; Humans ; Immobilization* ; Lower Extremity ; Shock, Septic ; Thigh* ; Thumb* ; Walking ; Wounds and Injuries

Abdominal tuberculosis is a rare disease, about 5% of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. However, the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis is difficult, because of its atypical symptoms and signs, and ambiguous results upon physical examination. When abdominal tuberculosis is combined with abdominal injury, the diagnosis will be especially complex. We present our experience of abdominal tuberculosis associated with abdominal trauma.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Injuries ; Diagnosis ; Physical Examination ; Rare Diseases ; Tuberculosis*

PURPOSETo enhance the awareness of rare complications of pelvic fracture and describe the correct diagnosis and effective treatment.

METHODSA total of 188 cases of pelvic fractures were retrospectively reviewed, and four patients who suffered from four types of rare pelvic fracture complications were described, namely ureteral obstruction caused by retroperitoneal hematoma-induced abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS), bowel entrapment, external iliac artery injury, and open scrotal sac injury.

RESULTSWe demonstrated that combined measures should be employed to prevent the occurrence of ACS following major pelvic fractures. Ureteral catheter support may be a good option at an early stage when ACS occurred. Contrasted computed tomography examination and sufficient awareness are keys to a correct diagnosis of bowel entrapment following pelvic fractures. Recognition of risk factors, early diagnosis, and prompt treatment of suspected injury of the external iliac artery are keys to patient survival and to avoid limb loss. Scrotal and/or testicular injury complicated by pelvic fractures should be carefully treated to maintain normal gonad function. Additionally, establishment of a sophisticated trauma care system and multi-disciplinary coordination are important for correct diagnosis and treat- ment of rare complications in pelvic fractures.

CONCLUSIONSRare complications of pelvic fractures are difficult to diagnose and negatively impact outcome. Recognition of risk factors and sufficient awareness are essential for correct diagnosis and prompt treatment.

Adult ; Female ; Fractures, Bone ; complications ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; injuries ; Intra-Abdominal Hypertension ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pelvic Bones ; injuries ; Scrotum ; injuries ; Testis ; injuries ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed