title: Use of peritoneal lavage to evaluate abdominal penetration.
abstract: A retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate peritoneal lavage in detecting abdominal penetration. Two hundred thirty-five patients with thoracoabdominal, flank, or tangential abdominal gunshot wounds were lavaged. Of these patients, 44 (18.7%) had positive lavages, defined as red blood cell counts greater than 10,000 cells/mm3, white blood cell counts greater than 500 cells/mm3, or the presence of bile, feces, or vegetable matter. There were 13.6% false positives and 1.0% false negatives, with an overall accuracy of 96.6%. The results were unaffected by mechanism or site of injury. If the criteria were changed to include red blood cell counts greater than 100,000 cells/mm3, there would have been no false positives, but an unacceptably high 11.1% false negative rate. Therefore we conclude that peritoneal lavage can be a reliable indicator of abdominal penetration provided sufficiently sensitive criteria are used. These criteria should include red blood cell counts greater than 10,000 cells/mm3 instead of 100,000 cells/mm3.
mesh_terms: D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006465:Hemoperitoneum / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D010529:Peritoneal Cavity; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery