Tag Archives: EAST

Abdomen

Guidelines For Diagnosis Of Diaphragmatic Injury

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In today’s post, I will review the diaphragmatic injury practice guidelines published by the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST).  I will follow this up on Friday with an interesting delayed diaphragm injury case.

Diaphragm injury is a troublesome one to diagnose. It is essentially an elliptical sheet of muscle that is doubly curved, so it does not lend itself well to diagnosis by axial imaging. The addition of sagittal and coronal reconstructions to a thoracoabdominal CT has been helpful but still has a far from perfect diagnostic record.

From an evaluation standpoint, there are several possibilities:

  • Observation – not generally recommended. It is usually combined with imaging such as a chest x-ray to see if interval changes occur that would indicate the injury.
  • Chest x-ray – this is not often diagnostic, but when herniation of abdominal contents is obvious, the patient most assuredly has an operative problem.
  • Thoracoabdominal CT scan – this technology keeps improving, especially with thinner cuts and different planes of reconstruction. Sometimes even subtle injuries can be detected. But this exam is still imperfect.
  • Laparoscopy or thoracoscopy – this technique yields excellent accuracy when the injury is in an area that can be viewed from the operative entry point chosen.
  • Laparotomy or thoracotomy – this is the ultimate choice and should be nearly 100% accurate. It is almost the most invasive and has more potential associated complications.

EAST reviewed a large body of literature and selected 56 pertinent papers for their quality and design. Then, they critically reviewed them and applied a standard methodology to answer several questions.

Here are the questions with the recommendations from EAST, along with my comments:

  • Should laparoscopy or CT be used to evaluate left-sided thoracoabdominal stab wounds? First, these patients must be hemodynamically stable and not have peritonitis. If either is present, there is no further need for diagnosis; a therapeutic procedure must be performed.
    Left-sided diaphragm injuries from stabs are evil. The hole is small, and since the pressure within the abdomen is greater than the chest, things always try to wiggle their way through this small hole. It can remain asymptomatic if the wiggler is just a piece of fat, but it can be catastrophic if a bit of the stomach or colon pushes through and becomes strangulated. Furthermore, these holes enlarge over time, so more and more stuff can push up into the chest.
    EAST recommends using laparoscopy for evaluation to decrease the incidence of missed injury. However, if the injury is in a less accessible location (posterior), the patient has body habitus issues or adhesions from previous surgery may lead to incomplete evaluation, laparotomy should be strongly considered.
  • Should operative or nonoperative management be used to evaluate right-sided thoracoabdominal penetrating wounds? Note that this is different than the last question. All penetrating injuries (stabs and gunshots) are included, and this one is for management, not evaluation. And the same caveats regarding hemodynamic stability and peritonitis apply. Again, it applies to both stabs and gunshots.
    Unlike left-sided injuries, right-sided ones are much more benign. This is because the liver keeps anything from pushing up through small holes, and they do not tend to enlarge over time due to this protection. For that reason, EAST recommends nonoperative management to reduce operation-related mortality and morbidity.
  • Should stable patients with acute diaphragm injury undergo repair via an abdominal or thoracic approach? This question applies to any diaphragm injury that requires an operation, such as a right-sided penetrating injury or any blunt injury. EAST recommends an approach from the abdomen to reduce morbidity and mortality. However, since abdominal injury frequently occurs in these cases, an approach from the chest limits the ability to identify and repair abdominal injuries. Otherwise, you may find yourself doing a laparotomy in addition to the thoracotomy.
  • Should patients with delayed visceral herniation through a diaphragm injury undergo repair via an abdominal or thoracic approach?  For years, the preferred approach for delayed presentations has been through the chest because the injury is easier to appreciate and repair.  However, if ischemic or gangrenous viscera are present, it will be more challenging to manage and repair from the chest. EAST does not make a specific recommendation for this question and suggests the surgical approach be determined on a case-by-case basis.
  • Should patients with an acute diaphragm injury from penetrating injury without concern for other intra-abdominal injuries undergo open or laparoscopic repair? The quality and quantity of data addressing this question were very low, but EAST recommends laparoscopy to repair these injuries to reduce morbidity and mortality. This includes blunt injuries, which tend to be larger. There were some conversions to an open procedure, especially in the blunt cases. The usual caveats on exposure, injury location, body habitus, and previous surgery apply.

Reference: Evaluation and management of traumatic diaphragmatic injuries: A Practice Management Guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. J Trauma 85(1):198-207.

Guidelines

5 Guidelines For Diaphragmatic Injury

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Today’s post is another review of some of the practice guidelines published by the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST).  This one covers the evaluation and management of diaphragmatic injury.

Diaphragm injury is a troublesome one to diagnose. It is essentially an elliptical sheet of muscle that is doubly-curved, so it does not lend itself well to diagnosis by axial imaging. Addition of sagittal and coronal reconstructions to a thoraco-abdominal CT has been helpful, but still has a far from perfect diagnostic record.

From an evaluation standpoint, there are several possibilities:

  • Observation – not generally recommended. It is usually combined with imaging such as chest x-ray to see if interval changes occur that would indicate the injury.
  • Chest x-ray – this is not often diagnostic, but when herniation of abdominal contents is obvious the patient most assuredly has an operative problem.
  • Thoraco-abdominal CT scan – this technology keeps getting better, especially with thinner cuts and different planes of reconstruction. Sometimes even subtle injuries can be detected. But this exam is still imperfect.
  • Laparoscopy or thoracoscopy – this technique yields excellent accuracy when the injury is in an area that can be viewed from the operative entry point chosen.
  • Laparotomy or thoracotomy – this is the ultimate choice and should be nearly 100% accurate. It is almost the most invasive and has more potential associated complications.

EAST reviewed a large body of literature and selected 56 pertinent papers for their quality and design. They critically reviewed them and applied a standard methodology to answer several questions.

Here are the questions with the recommendations from EAST, along with my comments:

  • Should laparoscopy or CT be used to evaluate left-sided thoraco-abdominal stab wounds? First, these patients must be hemodynamically stable and not have peritonitis. If either is present, there is no further need for diagnosis; a therapeutic procedure must be performed.
    Left sided diaphragm injuries from stabs are evil. The hole is small, and since the pressure within the abdomen is greater that the chest, things always try to wiggle their way through this small hole. It can remain asymptomatic if the wiggler is just a piece of fat, but can be catastrophic if a bit of the stomach or colon pushes through and becomes strangulated. Furthermore, these holes enlarge over time, so more and more stuff can push up into the chest.
    EAST recommends the use of laparoscopy for evaluation to decrease the incidence of missed injury. However, if the injury is in a less accessible location (posterior), the patient has body habitus issues, or adhesions from previous surgery may lead to incomplete evaluation, laparotomy should be strongly considered.
  • Should operative or nonoperative management be used to evaluate right-sided thoraco-abdominal penetrating wounds? Note that this is different than the last question. All penetrating injuries are included (stabs and gunshots), and this one is for management, not evaluation. And the same caveats regarding hemodynamic stability and peritonitis apply. It applies to both stabs and gunshots.
    Unlike left-sided injuries, right-sided ones are much more benign. The liver keeps anything from pushing up through small holes, and they do not tend to enlarge over time due to this protection. For that reason, EAST recommends nonoperative management to reduce mortality and morbidity related to operation.
  • Should stable patients with acute diaphragm injury undergo repair via an abdominal or thoracic approach? This question applies to any diaphragm injury that requires operation, such as right-sided penetrating injury or any blunt injury. EAST recommends an approach from the abdomen to reduce morbidity and mortality. Since abdominal injury frequently occurs in these cases, an approach from the chest limits the ability to identify and repair abdominal injuries. Otherwise, you may find yourself doing a laparotomy in addition to the thoracotomy.
  • Should patients with delayed visceral herniation through a diaphragm injury undergo repair via an abdominal or thoracic approach?  For years, the preferred approach for delayed presentations has been through the chest because the injury is easier to appreciate and repair.  However, if ischemic or gangrenous viscera are present, it will be more difficult to manage and repair from the chest. EAST does not make a specific recommendation for this question and suggests the surgical approach be determined on a case by case basis.
  • Should patients with an acute diaphragm injury from penetrating injury without concern for other intra-abdominal injuries undergo open or laparoscopic repair? The quality and quantity of data addressing this question were very low, but EAST recommends laparoscopy for repair of these injuries to reduce morbidity and mortality. This includes blunt injuries, which tend to be larger. There were some conversions to an open procedure, especially in the blunt cases. The usual caveats on exposure, injury location, body habitus and previous surgery apply.

Reference: Evaluation and management of traumatic diaphragmatic injuries: A Practice Management Guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. J Trauma 85(1):198-207.

General

EAST 2017 Page on The Trauma Pro Blog

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Hello all! I’ve created a separate page for posts regarding the upcoming meeting of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

I will be reviewing a baker’s dozen abstracts over the next 2 weeks, giving my own analysis and commentary. I’ll also provide some suggestions and questions to anticipate for the authors to refer to.

Click here to visit the EAST 2017 page!

And if you are a presenter and would like me to look at your paper, just email, tweet, or connect via your method of choice.

General

The Best of EAST! Starts tomorrow!

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Starting tomorrow, and continuing through the annual meeting of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, I will be analyzing one of the upcoming presentations each day. That’s 13 papers, and I’ll be picking some of the notable ones.

Remember, abstracts are teasers to get you to read/listen to the full paper. I’ll be reviewing them in detail, putting them into context, and this year I’ll be providing a list of questions that the presenters should be prepared to field from the audience. And I’ll be in that audience, so I will probably ask a few of them!

Enjoy the commentary, and I’ll see many of you at EAST in sunny Hollywood, Florida!

Practice guidelines

EAST Practice Management Guidelines: Elderly Falls Prevention

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The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) has published their most recent set of practice management guidelines. This one addresses prevention of falls in the elderly.

All trauma centers and trauma professionals are seeing more and more elderly patients, and the increase in the number of falls among these individuals is alarming. Most trauma centers are already engaging in some kind of prevention activity. However, their falls prevention efforts are all over the map, and there has been little guidance regarding what works and what does not.

So what can be done? The EAST practice management guideline group performed a methodical sweep of the literature to try to give us some objective information to shape prevention efforts. They addressed six specific questions. I have listed them below, with comments on what the literature shows us about the answers.

Question 1: Should bone mineral-enhancing agents be used? Conditional recommendation. A meta-analysis suggests that giving Vitamin D and calcium supplements tends to decrease fall-related injuries. The optimal dosing was not clear, but cholecalciferol doses of 400-800 IU daily and calcium dosing of 1000 to 1500 mg/day were most commonly used. There was a trend toward improved muscle strength and balance.

Question 2: Should hip protectors be used? Conditional recommendation. 
The evidence does show that wearing protectors decreases fall-related injury. However, compliance is usually an issue because they don’t look very cool. See below:

Question 3: Should exercise programs be used? Conditional recommendation. The literature on exercise routines shows a tremendous amount of variability in terms of the specific routines used. However, most studies do demonstrate a reduction in injury with implementation of an exercise program.

Question 4: Should physical environment modifications be made? Conditional recommendation. Conditions in the household are one of the biggest factors for causing falls. Clutter, throw rugs, poorly placed furniture all increase the risk of injury. The literature is extremely variable in the methods or equipment used, so the results are quite variable as well. Overall, home modifications such as grab bar placement, clutter removal, etc. appear to be of benefit.

Question 5: Should risk factor screening be used? Conditionally recommended. Screening for risk factors is not a specific intervention. However, it can and should be used to identify at-risk patients and direct interventions toward specific risk factors (see next question).

Question 6: Should multiple, tailored interventions be used? Strongly recommended. Research shows that if risk factor screening is applied to individuals or larger populations, and interventions directed at the specific factors identified are implemented, very favorable results are possible.

Bottom line: The best results I have personally seen at other trauma centers have been accomplished through risk factor screening and the use of multiple targeted interventions. Many centers address a single factor, or give talks to groups of older, non-injured patients. Although these activities may make us feel good, they probably don’t have the full effect that multifactorial interventions do, as addressed in Question 6. 

Elderly falls are a huge problem (and growing). Every trauma center should work on implementing a comprehensive and multi-factorial falls reduction program. And don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Many centers are already doing this, so don’t be shy about borrowing their program components!

Reference: 

Prevention of fall-related injuries in the elderly: An Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma practice management guideline. J Trauma 81(1):192-206, 2016.