Penetrating Abdominal Trauma

Among many trauma surgeons,decision-making in patients with penetrating trauma is considered much easier than that in blunt abdominal trauma.The principal reason for this difference is that the clinical exam is not clouded by an altered sensorium due to head injury and the source of blood loss in the unstable patient is usually localized to the abdomen. These factors make an expensive, time-consuming series of radiologic investigations unnecessary. In fact, with the exceptions described below, there is no role for imaging studies in patients with penetrating abdominal injuries.