Early Postmortem CT of Trauma Patients Useful for Support-Line Placement Training

The Trauma unit and Diagnostic Imaging department of the Sheba Medical Center (Ramat-Gan, Israel), and the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tel Aviv (TAU; Tel Aviv, Israel) have studied the effectiveness of support-line placement in cases of severe poly-trauma.

Postmortem CT examinations were performed at the Sheba Medical Center within 1 hour of death (on average 22 minutes after declaration of death) for 25 patients that had suffered from poly-trauma, and had undergone pre-hospital resuscitation. The study was carried out between the years 2008 and 2013, and studied the placement of Central Venous Catheters (CVC), Endotracheal Tubes (ETT), Nasogastric Tubes (NGT), and chest drains.

The results of the study show that 14 patients (56%) had support-lines that were suboptimal or misplaced. Problems included many misplaced chest drains (10 of 13 patients), a folded NGT in the pharynx, a femoral CVC in the soft tissue of the pelvis, and ETTs in the right main bronchus.

The results can provide useful training feedback for trauma teams and radiologists allowing them to improve future support-line treatments in trauma interventions.

Related Links:
Sheba Medical Center, Diagnostic Imaging Department
Sheba Medical Center, Trauma Unit
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University