Which is better?? e-Fast or contrast enhanced computed tomography in blunt abdominal trauma: An observational study in tertiary care center

Background: Blunt Abdominal trauma is one of the most common causes among injuries caused mainly due to road traffic accidents and assaults. The rapid increase in number of motor vehicles and its aftermath has caused rapid increase in number of victims to blunt abdominal trauma. Motor vehicle accidents account for 75 to 80% of blunt abdominal trauma. Blunt injury of abdomen is also a result of fall from height, assault with blunt objects, industrial mishaps, sport injuries, bomb blast and fall from riding bicycle. Due to the delay in diagnosis and inadequate treatment of the abdominal injuries, most of the cases are fatal. The knowledge in the management of blunt abdominal trauma has progressively increased. The reason for this could be due to the interval between trauma and hospitalization, inadequate and lack of appropriate surgical treatment, delay in diagnosis, post-operative complications and associated trauma especially to head, thorax and pelvis.Aims and Objectives: To study the sensitivity of eFAST in comparison with CECT in blunt injury abdomen patients.Material and Methods: All the patients brought to emergency department with the history of road traffic accident, fall from height, assault with blunt objects, industrial mishaps, sport injuries, bomb blast and fall from riding bicycle are included in the study. eFAST was done in the resuscitation area for all the patients. After admission all the patients with eFAST positive were on close observation for to proceed with CECT Abdomen and Pelvis or to operate the patient.Results: A total of 50 cases of blunt injury abdomen presenting in our trauma care setup were included in our study. Of these cases 44 cases (88%) were males and 06 cases (12%) were females. The age group spectrum studied was comprised of 16 years to 72 years and the mean age of the study group was 37.22 years. 40 patients were operated for haemoperitoneum and other 10 patients were managed conservatively.Conclusion: CECT is the gold standard technique for evaluating of blunt injury patients because it is highly sensitive and panoramic compared with eFAST. However eFAST can help us in assessing the severity of the trauma and helps in decision making for emergency laprotomy.