• Tej P Sinha, Sanjeev Bhoi, Sudeep Kumar, Radhakrishna Ramchandani, Ankur Goswami, Lalit Kurrey, and Sagar Galwankar.
• Departments of Surgery, JPN Apex Trauma Center, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
• J Emerg Trauma Shock. 2011 Oct 1;4(4):443-5.

BackgroundBedside ultrasound (BUS) can effectively identify fractures in the emergency department (ED).AimTo assess the diagnostic accuracy of BUS for fractures in pediatric trauma patients.Setting And DesignProspective observational study conducted in the ED.Material And MethodsPediatric patients with upper and lower limb injuries requiring radiological examination were included. BUS examinations were done by emergency physicians who had undergone a brief training. X-rays were reviewed for the presence of fracture and the results of BUS and radiography were compared.Statistical AnalysisSTATA version 11 was used for statistical analysis of the data.ResultsForty-one patients were enrolled in the study. The sensitivity of the BUS in detecting fracture was 89% [95% confidence interval (CI): 51% to 99%] and the specificity was 100% (95% CI: 87% to 100%). The positive predictive value of BUS was 100% and negative predictive value was 97%.ConclusionBUS can be utilized by emergency physicians after brief training to accurately identify long bone fractures in the pediatric age-group.

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