Keywords:
Trauma, Safety, Diagnostic procedure, Plain radiographic studies, CT, Musculoskeletal system, Musculoskeletal bone
Authors:
S. Leach, V. T. Skiadas, C. Lord, N. Purohit; Southampton/UK
DOI:
10.1594/essr2017/P-0234
Background
A large scale study covering 21 years of trauma in the UK has demonstrated that pelvic fractures are a common sequela of trauma,
affecting 8% of trauma patients [Giannoudis et al,
2007].
There is also an increased risk of mortality in patients with pelvic trauma (14.2%) versus those without (5.6%) at 3 months after injury.
Some studies have also demonstrated an increased mortality rate with certain fracture features such as fractures of the obturator ring and pubic symphsis diastasis [Blackmore et al,
2006].
It is therefore crucial that radiologists who report trauma,
including general radiologists as well as dedicated Musculoskeletal radiologists,
are able to quickly and confidently identify and characterise pelvic fractures in trauma patients.
Due to the importance of being able to quickly assess trauma scans for pelvic fractures several classification systems have arisen,
the most commonly used of which is the Young and Burgess system,
recommended by the British Society of Joint and Bone Surgery [Guthrie et al,
2010].
The Young and Burgess system is based on classification by mechanism of trauma,
improving the ability of radiologists to identify more subtle injury based on the expected fracture pattern,
as well as to guide further management of the patient based upon an estimate of instability [Burgess et al,
1990].