CXR in Blunt Trauma


Where does the role of a chest X-ray lie in major trauma?

With the ever increasing use of CT and ultrasound in the resus room what role does the old school CXR hold? How many injuries will it pick up? How many will it miss? And when is the extra delay justified?

This podcast looks at a recent paper on the topic and some related national guidelines. Enjoy!

References

Prevalence and Clinical Import of Thoracic Injury Identified by Chest Computed Tomography but Not Chest Radiography in Blunt Trauma: Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study. Langdorf MI. Ann Emerg Med. 2015 Dec

NICE 2016: Major trauma; assessment and initial management

5 Comments

  • john cross says:

    interesting update well presented with a great and easy to listen to voice.
    I would have liked a list of what the CX-ray was good for without having to access the Paper.
    I understand the was ED based so the anxiety of us working remotely with only a CX-ray and perhaps U/Sound has been a little increased. Thus if you have time and resources it would be great to summarise what needs CT, other than obvious clinical signs, so we can initiate early & timely retrieval.
    Thanks for your efforts snd msy they continue.
    Cheers

    • Simon Laing says:

      Hi John, thanks for the message, if you email me your details I’ll see if I can help with access to that paper. Cheers, Simon

  • Dr.Samarrae says:

    it would be great if the most important points in the podcast is written in the form of take-home massages

  • Matt says:

    It would be interesting to know whether ultrasound has any role for these patients inbetween the two imaging modalities.

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