Whole-body CT reduces trauma-related deaths

Seriously injured patients have a better chance of surviving multiple trauma when they are evaluated in the emergency room with whole-body CT, according to a study of more than 4500 cases from Germany.

Dr. Stefan Huber-Wagner and colleagues at the Munich University Hospital's department of trauma surgery compared the probability of survival in patients with blunt multiple trauma who underwent whole-body CT during resuscitation with those who did not. The investigators reviewed data from 4621 patients from several trauma centers recorded by the German Trauma Society’s registry. Using two different standard injury assessment methods, they found that polytrauma patients who underwent whole-body scans could achieve up to a 25% lower mortality risk than those who did not undergo whole-body CT. The researchers published results in the April 25 issue of The Lancet.