Is pelvis x-ray essential in stable trauma patients? Step towards lowering the treatment cost.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the diagnostic accuracy of clinical examination in detecting pelvic fractures in patients with blunt trauma..

METHODS

The cross-sectional prospective study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from January to June 2015, and comprised alert, awake blunt-trauma patients. Pelvis examination findings were compared to routine pelvic X-rays. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis..

RESULTS

Of the 133 patients, 122 (92%) were males. Overall mean age was 37 ±14.2 years. There were 14 (10%) patients who were true positives with pelvic fracture diagnosis on both clinical examination and pelvic X-ray, while 14 (10%) were false negative on examination. Clinical examination missed 2 patients with evidence of fracture on X-ray and were considered false positive. Besides, 103 (77.4%) patients were true negative as both clinical exam and X-ray showed no evidence of fracture.

CONCLUSION

Omitting pelvic X-ray in the recommended protocol can avoid unnecessary financial burden and reduce undesirable radiation exposure..