Identifying Children at Very Low Risk for Blunt Intra-Abdominal Injury in Whom CT of the Abdomen Can Be Avoided Safely.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2017
Identifier
DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2016.12.041
Abstract
Background: Computed tomography is commonly used to rule out intra-abdominal injury (IAI) in children, despite associated cost and radiation exposure. Our purpose was to derive a prediction rule to identify children at very low risk for IAI after blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) for whom a CT scan of the abdomen would be unnecessary.
Study design: We prospectively enrolled children younger than 16 years of age who presented after BAT at 14 Level I pediatric trauma centers during 1 year. We excluded patients who presented more than 6 hours after injury or underwent abdominal CT before transfer. We used binary recursive partitioning to derive a prediction rule identifying children at very low risk of IAI and IAI requiring acute intervention (IAI-I) using clinical information available in the trauma bay.
Results: We included 2,188 children with a median age of 8 years. There were 261 patients with IAI (11.9%) and 62 patients with IAI-I (2.8%). The prediction rule consisted of (in descending order of significance): aspartate aminotransferase >200 U/L, abnormal abdominal examination, abnormal chest x-ray, report of abdominal pain, and abnormal pancreatic enzymes. The rule had a negative predictive value of 99.4% for IAI and 100.0% for IAI-I in patients with none of the prediction rule variables present. The very-low-risk population consisted of 34% of the patients and 23% received a CT scan. Computed tomography frequency ranged from 4% to 96% by center.
Conclusions: A prediction rule using history and physical examination, chest x-ray, and laboratory evaluation at the time of presentation after BAT identifies children at very low risk for IAI for whom CT can be avoided.
Journal Title
Journal of the American College of Surgeons
Volume
224
Issue
4
First Page
449
Last Page
458
MeSH Keywords
Abdominal Injuries; Adolescent; Child; Child, Preschool; Decision Support Techniques; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Logistic Models; Male; Prospective Studies; Risk Assessment; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Unnecessary Procedures; Wounds, Nonpenetrating
Keywords
CAT scan; CT scan; Children; Teenagers
Recommended Citation
Streck CJ, Vogel AM, Zhang J, et al. Identifying Children at Very Low Risk for Blunt Intra-Abdominal Injury in Whom CT of the Abdomen Can Be Avoided Safely. J Am Coll Surg. 2017;224(4):449-458.e3. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2016.12.041
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