The clinical impact of CT for blunt abdominal trauma

The use of computed tomography (CT) has had a tremendous impact on the evaluation and management of blunt abdominal trauma. It is noninvasive, easy to perform, and has been shown to be highly sensitive (100%), specific (96.8%), and accurate (97.6%). The use of CT has helped decrease the total number of laparotomies performed for abdominal trauma at this institution (231 in 1975-1976, 74 in 1983) as well as the number of negative and nontherapeutic laparotomies. The use of other diagnostic tests such as radionuclide scans and angiography in blunt abdominal trauma has been virtually replaced by CT. Of the 41 peritoneal lavages performed in 1983, 39 were in patients who were in the operating room for treatment of other extraabdominal injuries (i.e., closed head injury, severe extremity trauma).