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Microhematuria as an Indicator of Significant Abdominal Injury
Lea Ohana-Sarna-Cahan1, Yonatan Levin2, Itai Gross3
1From the Department of Pediatrics.
Insights
Microhematuria in children after trauma has low diagnostic accuracy for intra-abdominal injuries. However, it remains a valuable screening tool for assessing injury severity and guiding further evaluation.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Trauma
- Urology
- Emergency Medicine
Background:
- Trauma is a leading cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality.
- Microhematuria is often used to screen for significant abdominal injuries in children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the role of dipstick urinalysis for microhematuria in identifying significant abdominal injuries in pediatric trauma patients.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective review of 655 children (0-16 years) admitted for motor vehicle accidents or falls (2007-2017).
- Analysis of urinalysis results and correlation with computed tomography (CT) scan findings.
Main Results:
- Microhematuria was present in 100 children; 41 underwent CT scans.
- CT revealed significant injury in 39% of those with microhematuria.
- Sensitivity: 66.6%, Specificity: 68.3%. Microhematuria correlated with longer hospital stays, surgery, and PICU admission.
Conclusions:
- Dipstick urinalysis for microhematuria has low sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing intra-abdominal injuries in children.
- Despite limitations, microhematuria is a useful initial screening tool for assessing injury severity.
Background And Objectives:
Trauma is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the pediatric population. In many centers, microhematuria is used as a screening tool for the presence of significant abdominal injury and as an indication for further imaging. Our objective was to evaluate the role of microhematuria by dipstick as an indicator of significant abdominal injury in children.
Methods:
A retrospective review of children aged 0 to 16 years admitted for a motor vehicle accident or a fall from 2007 to 2017 who had urinalyses performed.
Results:
The charts of 655 children were reviewed. Microhematuria was found in 100 children, of whom 49 (49%), 28 (28%), and 23 (23%) had small, moderate, and large amounts of hematuria, respectively. Of the children who had microhematuria, 41 underwent a computed tomography scan. Positive findings were recorded in 16 (39%) of these patients. There was a clear association between microhematuria as detected by the urine dipstick and a significant finding on the computed tomography scan (P = 0.002). The sensitivity of microhematuria for significant abdominal pathology on imaging was 66.6% and the specificity was 68.3% (positive predictive value, 39%; negative predictive value, 87.1%). Microhematuria was associated with increased length of stay in the hospital (P < 0.001), surgical interventions (P = 0.036), and admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
The diagnostic role of dipstick urine analysis in the assessment of intra-abdominal injury has low sensitivity and specificity. Nevertheless, it is still a valuable screening tool for the evaluation of the severity of injury.
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