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Emergency practitioners routinely encounter patients who suffer from abdominal trauma, be it blunt or penetrating. These injuries are often confounded by altered mental status, distracting injuries, or lack of historical information, and may present challenges in management. However, in the last several years new approaches to the diagnosis and management of abdominal trauma, including bedside ...

greater diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. The mechanism of blunt trauma may range from high-speed injuries to minor falls or direct blows to the abdomen. Motor vehicle collisions are responsible for approximately 75%, blows to the abdomen for approximately 15%, and falls for approximately 9% of injuries. Evaluation is further complicated by extraabdominal injuries, as well as by altered me...