Abdominal CT scans in patients with blunt trauma : low yield in the absence of clinical findings

This study undertook to determine the yield of abdominal CT scans ordered only because the patient's sensorium was decreased or general anesthesia was planned. The abdominal CT scans and hospital charts of 191 consecutive patients examined following blunt trauma were reviewed with respect to clinical indications prompting the study. In 143, some clinical or laboratory justification was in evidence. In this group, 55 patients (38.5%) were found to have trauma-related pathology at CT scan. In 48 patients, no clinical or laboratory suggestion of abdominal pathology was evident. Instead, the primary indications for ordering the CT scan were decreased sensorium (28 cases), the planning of general anesthesia for orthopedic procedures (8 cases), and a variety of non-abdominal-trauma-related reasons. In this group, only a single positive finding was identified (small pneumothorax), and in no case was the clinical course altered by findings at abdominal CT scan. Performance of abdominal CT scans without clinical or laboratory evidence of trauma, merely because of decreased patient sensorium or prophylactically prior to general anesthesia for non-abdomen-related surgery, is an extremely low yield study and should be discouraged. In the current study, no significant abdominal pathology would have been overlooked by omission of such scans. Similar findings have been reported in children. To our knowledge, this is the first such report in a largely adult population.