Acute trauma patients face the risk of life-threatening conditions such as shock, aortic dissection, brainstem hemorrhage, coagulopathy, acidosis, and multiorgan system failure. Treatment of these conditions is a race against time and requires immediate identification, according to paperco-author Dr. Savvas Nicolaou.
In a retrospective analysis, the group sought to evaluate the clinical utility of Polytrauma Viewer (Siemens Healthcare), a prototype viewer designed to maximize the potential of the single-pass, whole-body, contrast-enhanced CT protocols used in blunt trauma patients, Nicolaou said.
Through novel autosplitting and automatic reconstruction techniques and utilizing the whole-body CT scan and topogram, Polytrauma Viewer yielded a 48% decrease in scan load time and a 28% drop in interpretation time, compared with a PACS workstation, according to the researchers. These gains came without a loss in diagnostic confidence for excluding life-threatening traumatic pathology, Nicolaou said.
"These factors alone have the potential to decrease patient morbidity and mortality," Nicolaou told AuntMinnie.com. "In addition to these advances, 3D volume rendering is instantaneously made available, which assists with immediate surgical planning."
