• Giuliano Santolamazza, Francesco Virdis, Fikri Abu-Zidan, Stefano Piero Bernardo Cioffi, Elisa Reitano, Michele Altomare, Roberto Bini, Andrea Spota, Mauro Podda, Jayant Kumar, Osvaldo Chiara, PseAn Collaborative Group, and Stefania Cimbanassi.
• Department of Emergency and Trauma Surgery, Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Unit, ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda, Piazza Dell'Ospedale Maggiore, 3, 20162, Milan, MI, Italy.
• Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2023 Oct 13.

BackgroundThe blunt and penetrating abdominal trauma follow-up relies on contrast CT scan to detect solid organ injuries. CEUS is not widely used worldwide, despite its accuracy and feasibility in identifying parenchymal and vascular lesions. This survey aims to define the current use of CEUS in Trauma Centers and the expectations of Emergency Surgeons regarding its role.MethodsWe sent an online questionnaire composed of 10 questions to trauma physicians worldwide during the period of September 2022 to March 2023.Results59 participants from 53 different centers answered the questionnaire. 76.2% of the enrolled participants have CEUS available at their Institution, and 49.2% think that it can replace CT scan. Contrast-CT scan remains the preferred option in the follow-up of blunt liver (69.5%), spleen (72.9%) and kidney (76.3%) injuries, followed by CEUS which is used in 18.6% for liver, 20.3% for spleen and 15.3% for kidney injuries. The results are similar for penetrating abdominal trauma, with contrast CT scan being the first-line imaging technique (91.5% for liver, 91.5% for spleen and 88.1% for kidney injuries), followed by CEUS (5.1% for liver, 5.1% for spleen and 6.8% for kidney injuries).ConclusionsOur survey shows that CEUS is still underutilized in the follow-up of abdominal trauma, even though many emergency surgeons consider it as a valid alternative to contrast CT scan.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.

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