Visceral Trauma: Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology

摘要

In clinical practice, physical examination is often unreliable in patients who are sedated, intoxicated, paralyzed, have head injures, or otherwise are unable to communicate symptoms. Moreover, intra-abdominal injury in particular can be present in the absence of signs and symptoms in blunt trauma patients. So for an accurate evaluation of the patient with multiple trauma the utilization of diagnostic modalities is often required. Three diagnostic imaging tools are utilized for the evaluation of thoraco-abdominal visceral trauma: standard X-ray plain film, ultrasonography (US), and computed tomography (CT). Furthermore, we must remember that in the last 10 years interventional radiology has been shown to be able to contribute to the treatment of these conditions due to its low invasiveness.