European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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To examine the feasibility and diagnostic value of a novel prehospital chest ultrasound algorithm in patients with dyspnea. ⋯ Prehospital chest emergency sonography trial is a novel prehospital ultrasound algorithm for patients with dyspnea. Pleural effusion may serve as a novel prehospital marker for patients with decompensated CHF, thus facilitating the often difficult differential diagnosis between CHF and COPD.
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Wrist injuries are a common presentation to emergency departments. A clinical pathway has recently been introduced in our institution for patients with clinical suspicion of a scaphoid injury, using computed tomography (CT) at 2 weeks postinjury to rule out scaphoid fracture. However, it is not known what happens to patients who have a normal CT after such an injury. The aim of this pilot study was to assess disability after CT-negative wrist injuries. ⋯ The majority of these patients recover from their injury, but a small proportion with normal CT scans have considerable disability 12 months after injury. Appropriate advice should be given to these patients to enable them to access further investigation and treatment.
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Increasing evidence supports a role for contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the assessment of blunt abdominal trauma. Accurate definition of organ injury can be demonstrated, as well as extension to solid organ capsule and even vascular injury. Low-dose contrast is needed for renal imaging, to avoid obscuration of deeper structures from intense cortical enhancement. ⋯ The spleen is best assessed in the delayed phase, thereby limiting misinterpretation of early heterogeneous contrast uptake. Typical sonographic features of traumatic injuries of the solid abdominal organs are described. Although contrast-enhanced computed tomography is the gold standard modality for imaging abdominal organ traumatic injury, contrast-enhanced ultrasound has developed a role in the emergency setting, particularly in low-energy injuries and in follow-up of traumatic injuries.
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We sought to identify the impact of whole-body computed tomography (WBCT) on working and suspected diagnoses in Emergency Department (ED) trauma patients and to determine the rate of WBCT scans with no detectable traumatic injuries. We performed a retrospective database analysis of all trauma patients who underwent WBCT in 2009, comparing pretest suspicion of specific injury to WBCT findings, looking for the rates of unexpected findings and the absence of traumatic injury in WBCT studies. ⋯ Overall, WBCT results differed from clinical findings in 130 (72.6%) patients, a statistically significant difference (P<0.0001). In conclusion, WBCT identifies previously unexpected injuries in almost 66% of ED trauma patients, supporting its continued use in the initial assessment of trauma patients.