Whole-Body CT Scan Reduces Mortality for Some Blunt Trauma Patients

The Advanced Trauma Life Support Manual and many trauma guidelines recommend head computed tomography (CT) scanning for blunt poly-trauma patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores of 3 to 12, regardless of outward signs of head injury. Some centers have opted for whole-body (head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis) CT scanning during initial evaluation of these patients as well.

Using Japan's Trauma Data Bank, researchers retrospectively identified adult blunt trauma patients with initial GCS scores of 3 to 12, initial systolic blood pressure >75 mm Hg, and Trauma and Injury Severity Score elements recorded, and compared mortality between 1858 patients who underwent whole-body CT and 3350 who underwent CT scanning that did not include all the…