Damage control surgery: use of diagnostic CT after life-saving laparotomy

Diagnostic challenges in postoperative intra-abdominal sepsis in critically ill patients: When to reoperate?

The present paper was done to review common diagnostic techniques used to help surgeons find the most suitable way to diagnose postoperative intra-abdominal sepsis (IAS). The topic was searched on MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. Collected articles were classified and checked for their quality. Findings of selected research were included in this study and analyzed to find the best diagnostic method for intra-abdominal sepsis. IAS presents severe morbidity and mortality, and its early diagnosis can improve the outcome. Currently, there is no consensus among surgeons on a single diagnostic modality that should be used while deciding reoperation in patients with postoperative IAS. Though it has a high sensitivity for abdominal infections, computed tomography has limited applications due to mobility and time constraints. Diagnostic laparoscopy is a safe process that produces usable images, and can be used at the bedside. Diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL) has high sensitivity, and the patients testing positive through DPL can be subjected to exploratory laparotomy, depending on severity. Abdominal Reoperation Predictive Index (ARPI) is the only index reported as an aid for this purpose. Serial intra-abdominal pressure measurement has also emerged as a potential diagnostic tool. A proper selection of diagnostic modality is expected to improve the outcome in IAS, which presents high mortality risk and a limited time frame.

CT of Penetrating Abdominopelvic Trauma

Penetrating abdominopelvic trauma usually results from abdominal cavity violation from a firearm injury or a stab wound and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality from traumatic injuries. Penetrating trauma can have subtle or complex imaging findings, posing a diagnostic challenge for radiologists. Contrast-enhanced CT is the modality of choice for evaluating penetrating injuries, with good sensitivity and specificity for solid-organ and hollow viscus injuries. Familiarity with the projectile kinetics of penetrating injuries is an important skill set for radiologists and aids in the diagnosis of both overt and subtle injuries. CT trajectography is a useful tool in CT interpretation that allows the identification of subtle injuries from the transfer of kinetic injury from the projectile to surrounding tissue. In CT trajectography, after the entry and exit wounds are delineated, the two points can be connected by placing cross-cursors and swiveling the cut planes obliquely in orthogonal planes to obtain a double-oblique orientation to visualize the wound track in profile. The path of the projectile and its ensuing damage is not always straight, and the imaging characteristics of free fluid of different attenuation in the abdomen (including hemoperitoneum) can support the diagnosis of visceral and vascular injuries. In addition, CT is increasingly used for evaluation of patients after damage control surgery and helps guide the management of injuries that were overlooked at surgery. An invited commentary by Paes and Munera is available online. Online supplemental material is available for this article. ©RSNA, 2021.

Spontaneous fistulisation of the common bile duct after transection by gunshot

A 35-year-old man presented with a gunshot wound to his abdomen via his lower chest. Initial laparotomy did not identify any perforation or contamination. On day 3, a laparotomy under the hepatobiliary service discovered a gastric perforation, two lateral duodenal perforations and a complete transection of the common bile duct, presumably delayed perforation from the shockwave injury produced by the bullet. Contamination and haemodynamic instability precluded immediate reconstruction, and abdominal drains and external biliary drainage were established. High-volume duodenal fistula was managed with slow withdrawal of drains, and inadvertent dislodgement of the biliary drain in an outpatient setting resulted in spontaneous fistulisation of the bile duct to the lateral duodenal wall, with creation of a neo-bile duct. The patient remains well more than 1 year later, without external drainage despite no surgical reconstruction.

Multidetector CT Findings in the Abdomen and Pelvis after Damage Control Surgery for Acute Traumatic Injuries

After experiencing blunt or penetrating trauma, patients in unstable condition who are more likely to die of uncorrected shock than of incomplete injury repairs undergo emergency limited exploratory laparotomy, which is also known as damage control surgery (DCS). This surgery is part of a series of resuscitation steps, with the goal of stabilizing the patient's condition, with rapid surgical control of hemorrhage followed by supportive measures in the intensive care unit before definitive repair of injuries. These patients often are imaged with multidetector CT within 24-48 hours of the initial surgery. Knowledge of this treatment plan is critical to CT interpretation, because there are anatomic derangements and foreign bodies that would not be present in patients undergoing surgery for other reasons. Patients may have injuries beyond the surgical field that are only identified at imaging, which can alter the care plan. Abnormalities related to the resuscitation period such as the CT hypoperfusion complex and ongoing hemorrhage can be recognized at CT. Familiarity with these imaging and clinical findings is important, because they can be seen not only in trauma patients after DCS but also in other patients in the critical care setting. The interpretation of imaging studies can be helped by an understanding of the diagnostic challenges of grading organ injuries with surgical materials in place and the awareness of potential artifacts on images in these patients. Online supplemental material is available for this article. ^©RSNA, 2019 See discussion on this article by LeBedis .

Changes in Approach to Solid Organ Injury: What the Radiologist Needs to Know

This review aims to examine the challenges facing radiologists interpreting trauma computed tomography (CT) images in this era of a changing approach to management of solid organ trauma. After reviewing the pearls and pitfalls of CT imaging protocols for detection of traumatic solid organ injuries, we describe the key changes in the 2018 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Organ Injury Scales for liver, spleen, and kidney and their implications for management strategies. We then focus on the important imaging findings in observed in patients who undergo nonoperative management and patients who are imaged post damage control surgery.

Multidetector Computed Tomography Imaging of Damage Control Surgery Patients

Damage control surgery is a staged surgical procedure in a patient who has suffered penetrating or blunt abdominal traumatic injury with severe metabolic derangements. Multidetector computed tomography scanning is a vital tool for patient management in the damage control patient, providing many uses, including assessing the extent of traumatic injury, evaluating areas that were not surgically explored, evaluating for injuries that were missed during the initial surgery, and assessing the stability of surgical repair. Understanding the postsurgical multidetector computed tomography appearance of these patients can aid the radiologist in protocol optimization and provide immediate accurate diagnoses.

Damage Control for Vascular Trauma from the Prehospital to the Operating Room Setting

Early management of vascular injury, starting at the field, is imperative for survival no less than any operative maneuver. Contemporary prehospital management of vascular trauma, including appropriate fluid and volume infusion, tourniquets, and hemostatic agents, has reversed the historically known limb hemorrhage as a leading cause of death. In this context, damage control (DC) surgery has evolved to DC resuscitation (DCR) as an overarching concept that draws together preoperative and operative interventions aiming at rapidly reducing bleeding from vascular disruption, optimizing oxygenation, and clinical outcomes. This review addresses contemporary DCR techniques from the prehospital to the surgical setting, focusing on civilian vascular injuries.

Iatrogenic, blunt, and penetrating trauma to the biliary tract

Iatrogenic and traumatic bile leaks are uncommon. However, given the overall increase in number of hepatobiliary surgeries and the paradigm shift toward nonoperative management of patients with liver trauma, they have become more prevalent in recent years. Imaging is essential to establishing early diagnosis and guiding treatment as the clinical signs and symptoms of bile leaks are nonspecific, and a delay in recognition of bile leaks portends a high morbidity and mortality rate. Findings suspicious for a bile leak at computed tomography or ultrasonography include free or contained peri- or intrahepatic low density fluid in the setting of recent trauma or hepatobiliary surgery. Hepatobiliary scintigraphy and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) with hepatobiliary contrast agents can be used to detect active or contained bile leak. MRCP with hepatobiliary contrast agents has the unique ability to reveal the exact location of bile leak, which often governs whether endoscopic management or surgical management is warranted. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography and fluoroscopy via an indwelling catheter that is placed either percutaneously or surgically are useful modalities to guide percutaneous transhepatic biliary drain placement which can provide biliary drainage and/or diversion in the setting of traumatic biliary injury. Surgical treatment of a bile duct injury with Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy is warranted if definitive treatment cannot be accomplished through percutaneous or endoscopic means.