In the current issue of the Archives of Surgery by Berg et al, through the JAMA network, highlighted in the ACEP news , “To our knowledge, the current study is the most complete examination of injury patterns and outcomes in the largest series of blunt thoracoabdominal trauma patients to date,” wrote study investigators Dr. Regan J. Berg and colleagues in the division of trauma surgery and surgical critical care, Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles. Blunt trauma was defined as an Abbreviated Injury Score of 2 or more in both the chest and abdomen) who were admitted to the LAC+USC Medical Center between January 1996 and December 2010. They investigated trauma patterns, resulting injuries, need for operative care, and clinical outcomes – – and found that “In cases of blunt thoracoabdominal trauma, the abdomen should be the initial cavity of exploration in patients requiring emergent surgery without direct radiologic data, based on the results of a trauma registry and medical record review of 1,661 patients.”
SonoStudy: Trauma registry investigation of 1,600+ patients: The abdomen must be explored first in blunt trauma!
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SonoSpot: Topics in Bedside Ultrasound 