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                <h2><strong>Title:</strong> <a href="https://umem.org/educational_pearls/4651/">CT scans still aren’t perfect</a></h2>
                <p><strong>Category:</strong> <a href="https://umem.org/educational_pearls/?category=6">Trauma</a></p>
                                        <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Trauma, CT scan, gunshot wound <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&term=Trauma+CT+scan+gunshot+wound+%22last+5+years%22[dp]&db=pubmed&pubmedfilters=true" target="_blank">(PubMed Search)<i class="icon-share" title="Opens in new window"></i></a>  </p>
                                <p>
                        <strong>Posted:</strong> 11/10/2024 by <a href="https://umem.org/educational_pearls/?author=2561">Robert Flint, MD</a> 
                                                        (Updated: 11/17/2024)
                                                <br/>
                        <a href="https://umem.org/profiles/faculty/2561/">Click here to contact Robert Flint, MD</a>
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                <p>This retrospective study illustrates that the use of CT scanning to identify injury in gun shot wounds to the abdomen is not sensitive or specific enough to obviate the need for laparotomy. “Admission hypotension, abdominal pain and/or peritonitis, evisceration, and a transabdominal trajectory were considered clear indications for laparotomy.”  If there is clear indication to go to the OR, stopping in CT does not add any benefit. </p>
<p><img src="https://umem.org/files/uploads/content/pearls/A772142D-C3D3-4F3E-8874-ECA7CA6D10C4-6730ccea0b652.jpg" alt="" /></p>


                                
                                                                                                <h3>References</h3>
                <h2>The fallacy of a roadmap computed tomography after an abdominal gunshot wound: A road that leads to nowhere</h2>
<p>Vasquez, Matthew MD; Dhillon, Navpreet K. MD; Feliciano, David V. MD, FACS, MAMSE†; Scalea, Thomas M. MD, FACS, MCCM</p>
<p><em>Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery</em> <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/pages/currenttoc.aspx">97(5):p 785-790, November 2024.</a> | <em>DOI:</em> 10.1097/TA.0000000000004404</p>

        
                
                                
                
                                        <h3>View this pearl on the University of Maryland, Department of Emergency Medicine's website: <a href="https://umem.org/educational_pearls/4651/">https://umem.org/educational_pearls/4651/</a></h3>
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