BAT

[Pret Bjorn]

If your major decisions can wait three hours, this better not be trauma. 

Unless you have a surgeon in the room, defer ALL your CT's and focus on
transfer.  Get an AP chest film and splint everything else.

Pret

-----Original Message-----
From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org [mailto:trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org]
On Behalf Of ccrone at charter.net
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 12:38 AM
To: trauma-list at trauma.org
Subject: BAT

I work at a small, rural ER (about 18, 000 annual ED volume).  We have no
FAST/Ultrasound immediately available at all times.  If we have a case of
blunt abdominal trauma & order a CT scan, our radiologist demands that we
have the patient drink oral contrast & wait 2 hours for the CT to be
performed.  It then takes another 30 minutes for the report to be obtained.
What do other institutions currently do regarding the use of oral contrast
when obtaining abdominal/pelvic CT's for blunt abdominal trauma in a
hemodynamically stable patient-- with suspected internal injuries?

Thanks 
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