OBJECTIVE To clarify the usefulness of ultrasonography (US) as a diagnostic instrument for intraperitoneal free air (IPFA), which is thought to be useful in the fields of emergency medicine and traumatology. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Tertiary critical care and emergency center. PATIENTS A total of 484 patients with severe chest-abdominal-pelvic blunt trauma or, in th...

Objective: To determine if the treatment of penetrating colonic injury must include fecal diversion at or proximal to the injury, to avoid sepsis and mortality. Data source: Studies were identified by searching MEDLINE 1966–2001, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry and EMBASE. Study selection: Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials comparing outcomes of primary repa...

Transcutaneous ultrasound imaging may be used to detect abdominal hemorrhage in the field setting. The Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) examination was developed to characterize blunt abdominal trauma and has been shown to be effective for assessing penetrating trauma as well. However, it is unlikely that a minimally trained operator could perform a diagnostic examination. I...

Trauma, both blunt and penetrating, is extremely common worldwide, as trauma to major vessels. The management of these patients requires specialized surgical skills and techniques of the trauma surgeon. Furthermore few other surgical emergencies require immediate diagnosis and treatment like a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA). Mortality of patients with a rAAA reaches 85 %, with more t...

Diaphragmatic injuries due to thoraco-abdominal penetrating trauma may often go unnoticed at the initial admission, especially in patients who are asymptomatic, with stable hemodynamic and respiratory parameters. Such occult diaphragmatic perforations can result in latent morbidity and mortality due to delayed trans-diaphragmatic herniation of the abdominal viscera leading to incarceration, str...

introduction: there are significant gender differences in the epidemiology and presentation of cardiovascular diseases (cvds), physiological aspects of cvds, response to diagnostic tests or interventions, and prevalence or incidence of the associated risk factors. considering the independent influence of gender on early dire consequences of such diseases, this study was conducted to investigate...

in any patient with a history of penetrating thoracic trauma, cardiac injury must be kept in mind. here, we describe a 36 years-old female referred to this hospital with severe chest pain and hypotension. after primary evaluation and suggestion of ami, streptokinase was started for the patient and because of deterioration of vital signs, cardiac surgery consultation was requested. after perform...

Introduction Serious abdominal trauma as a result of sporting activities is an uncommon problem. However, because of its relative infrequency, injuries may sometimes go undiagnosed. Significant blunt abdominal injuries do not present in the same way as major orthopaedic injuries, usually because these injuries are, for the most part, internal and concealed. Thankfully penetrating injuries are q...

Background. Bowel injuries are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality following trauma. Evaluating patients who sustained abdominal trauma with bowel injury may pose a significant diagnostic challenge to the surgeon. Prompt recognition and timely intervention is necessary to improve outcome. Aim. This study was undertaken to evaluate treatment and outcome of patients with bowel trauma. Meth...