CT Change Management in Trauma Patients

Overview

In high-volume trauma centers, multi-slice CT scanners have become the routine imaging modality for screening trauma patients due to their speed and accuracy. In trauma patients with no known neurologic deficits, diagnostic CT is often obtained though it remains unclear whether this affects management of the patient \[1\]. With the growing cost of health care, a careful look at the benefit and cost of CT is needed to determine how to best utilize this modality in the evaluation of trauma patients. HYPOTHESIS: In trauma patients with absence of neurologic defects, the addition of comprehensive CT does not change overall clinical management.

Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to determine the benefit of the CT scan in the clinical management or outcomes of the trauma patients with no neurologic deficits. Primary Outcome: Percentage of trauma patients with no known neurologic deficits who underwent a CT, any clinically impactful CT findings. Secondary Outcome: Percentage of benefits CT provides in clinical features, clinical outcomes, injury severity score, GCS, age, sex, ethnicity, cause of injury, mechanism of injury, hospital length of stay, operative vs. non-operative, discharge disposition, radilogy, pathology results and images, any additional morbidities, total cost, 30-day readmission rate, and morality. And when operation does occur, the types of operation and the resulting cost and length of stay.

Conditions

Interventions