When hemodynamically unstable patients with blunt major trauma arrive at the emergency department (ED), the safety of performing early whole-body computed tomography (WBCT) is concerning. Some clinicians perform central venous catheterization (CVC) before WBCT (pre-computed tomography [CT] group) for hemodynamic stabilization. However, as no study has reported the factors affecting this decision, we compared clinical characteristics and outcomes of the pre- and post-CT groups and determined factors affecting this decision.
This retrospective study included 70 hemodynamically unstable patients with chest or/and abdominal blunt injury who underwent WBCT and CVC between March 2013 and November 2017.
Univariate analysis revealed that the injury severity score, intubation, pulse pressure, focused assessment with sonography in trauma positivity score, and pH were different between the pre-CT (34 patients, 48.6%) and post-CT (all,
Clinicians have a tendency to perform CVC before CT in patients with blunt major trauma and high ISS and intubation.