Trauma, Critical Care and Emergency Medicine

Biography

Biography: Poster-3: Yeo Min Cho

Abstract

In Australia blunt trauma accounts for 90% of admitted trauma cases, 22% of who sustain a blunt abdominal trauma (BAT). At the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2016, BAT accounted for 15% of all major trauma cases, of these 30% required a laparotomy and 18% required angioembolization. Through better understanding of blunt abdominal trauma and advancements in diagnostics and non-operative management techniques including angioembolization, more conservative approaches are utilized for treatment of BAT. Therefore, the morbidity associated with laparotomies has reduced. This poster presents the evidence based clinical practice guideline for the assessment, investigation and management of blunt abdominal trauma at a level 1 trauma center, with an updated review of relevant literature current to 2019. A decision making algorithm and practical points on the assessment, investigation and management of BAT, as well as common pitfalls to consider will be presented. Ongoing implementation and revision of this evidence based clinical practice guideline allows health professionals to be better informed to make decisions for the care of patients presenting with blunt abdominal trauma. This leads to benefits for the individual patient and the health system through reductions in non-therapeutic laparotomy, judicious use of computed tomography and appropriate selection of patients for non-operative management.