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210360

EVALUATION OF EXTERNAL INJURIES AS INDICATORS OF INTERNAL INJURIES IN VICTIMS OF BLUNT TRAUMA

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

Subjects

-

Tags

• Violence, Assault and Injury, Domestic Violence

Abstract

Background: Blunt trauma presents a challenge when external injuries are used to determine or predict the type and severity of internal injuries. Objective: to assess the relationship between internal injuries and external injuries in blunt trauma adult victims. Methodology: This retrospective study was conducted on adult victims of blunt trauma admitted to the Emergency hospital, Tanta University Hospitals from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2019. Collected variables included sociodemographic data, circumstances of trauma, and sustained injuries. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) was calculated for external and internal injuries. Results: The study included 311 victims of blunt trauma. A significant association between external and internal injuries was detected in all body regions (p < 0.05), but the positive predictive value (PPV) of external injury was low (below 60%) except for the neck and extremities (75% and 62.4%, respectively). The negative predictive value was ≥90% for all body regions except the head (80.6%). The correlations between AIS of external and internal injuries were positive, moderate, and significant in the neck (rs=0.668, p < 0.001), extremities (rs=0.535, p < 0.001), and head (rs=0.334, p < 0.001), but weak in the chest (rs=0.147, p=0.009) and abdomen (rs=0.123, p=0.030). Conclusion: external injuries are considered as poor indicators of the presence of internal injuries in most body regions. Physicians should not be tempted to rule in or out the presence of internal injury based on external examination. Forensic experts should determine the extent of internal injuries based either on complete autopsy or implement the techniques of the virtual autopsy to avoid misdiagnosing significant internal injuries

DOI

10.21608/ejfsat.2021.91366.1214

Keywords

abbreviated injury scale, injury, Falls, Road traffic accidents

Authors

First Name

Amal

Last Name

Hafez

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Forensic Medicine &amp;amp; Clinical Toxicology Department - Faculty of Medicine - Tanta University - Tanta - Gharbia governorate - Egypt

Email

amal.hafez@med.tanta.edu.eg

City

Tanta

Orcid

-

First Name

Amira

Last Name

Wahdan

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

Email

amira.wahdan@med.tanta.edu.eg

City

Tanta

Orcid

-

Volume

21

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

29161

Issue Date

2021-12-01

Receive Date

2021-09-10

Publish Date

2021-12-01

Page Start

93

Page End

103

Print ISSN

1687-0875

Online ISSN

2535-1915

Link

https://ejfsat.journals.ekb.eg/article_210360.html

Detail API

https://ejfsat.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=210360

Order

8

Type

Original Article

Type Code

429

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

The Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences and Applied Toxicology

Publication Link

https://ejfsat.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

-

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023