Role of bedside sonography in detecting rib fractures and related injuries

Aim:
About 40 % of patients with trauma, experience chest related injuries. Rib fracture remains the most frequent finding in chest trauma. Some literatures have suggested chest wall ultrasonography as a potential replacement for CXR in detecting rib fractures. The aim of this study is to assess sensitivity and specificity of bedside ultrasonography in detecting rib fractures and related injuries.

Materials and Methods:
Patients between April 2012 and April 2014 were enrolled in our prospective cross-sectional study.
Then emergency medicine specialists performed a bedside ultrasonography to detect any probable fracture and suspected injuries. We took CXRs and an expert radiologist looked for fracture and related injuries. A chest computerized tomography (CT) scan was taken and compared with findings of CXR and ultrasonography.

Results:
Out of 360 patients, 238 met our inclusion criteria and enrolled in the study; where 222 (= 93.3%) were male and 16 (= 6.7%) were female with the average age of 33.78±11.62(±SD). The sensitivity and specificity of two modalities in detecting fracture, pneumothorax, hemothorax and contusion were analyzed.

Conclusion:
Our study showed that bedside ultrasonography could substitute CXR in detecting not only rib fractures but also related comorbidities especially in minor trauma.