BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (Jan 2020)

Detection of fractures of hand and forearm in whole-body CT for suspected polytrauma in intubated patients

  • F. Münn,
  • R. A. Laun,
  • A. Asmus,
  • R. Bülow,
  • S. Bakir,
  • L. Haralambiev,
  • A. Eisenschenk,
  • S. Kim

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-020-3068-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 21, no. 1
pp. 1 – 5

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of whole-body CT for diagnosis of hand and forearm fractures in intubated patients with suspected polytrauma. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis on data collected from two trauma centres in Germany, including demographics, ISS, clinical symptoms, depiction in whole-body CT, and time to diagnosis. Results Out of 426 patients included in the study, 66 (15.5%) suffered a hand or forearm fracture. The total number of fractures was 132, the whole-body CT report mentioned 98 (74.2%). 16 (12,1%) fractures of 12 patients were diagnosed later than 24 h after admission. Late diagnoses of fractures of the hand occurred more often if the hand was not fully included in the CT scan field. The sensitivity of whole-body CT for cases with fractures of hand and/or forearm with full inclusion of the corresponding area in the scan field was 80.2%. Conclusions This study shows that whole-body CT is a valuable diagnostic tool for hand fractures in polytrauma patients. Hands should be evaluated regardless of clinical presentation in intubated patients after suspected polytrauma if they are included in the whole-body CT.

Keywords