title: Identifying severe abdominal injuries during the initial assessment in blunt trauma patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the predictive factors of severe abdominal injuries (SAI) identified in the initial assessment of blunt trauma victims.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis of data from blunt trauma victims older than 13 years undergoing abdominal computed tomography and/or laparotomy was carried out. Serious injuries were considered with an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) greater than or equal to three. Variables were compared between both A (SAI) and B (no SAI). We conducted an initial univariate statistical analysis to identify the variables associated with the presence of SAI. From these we selected those that had p<0.20 and could be evaluated on admission of the patient for multivariate analysis (logistic regression).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sample consisted of 331 cases and 140 (42.3%) patients had abdominal injuries. Of these, 101 (30.5%) had abdominal injury with AIS e" 3 (Group A). In univariate analysis, conditions significantly associated with the SAI (p<0.05): systolic blood pressure (SBP) in the pre-hospital setting (p = 0.019), SBP at admission (p<0.001), heart rate at admission (p = 0.047), altered physical examination of the abdomen (p <0.001) and the presence of pelvic fractures (p = 0.006). The following variables were significantly and independently correlated with the presence of severe abdominal injuries: SBP at admission (p = 0.034), altered abdominal physical examination (p<0.001), lower limb fracture (p<0.044), motorcycle accident as mechanism of injury (p = 0.017) and positive FAST (p <0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the variables present at baseline were significantly associated with the presence of SAI: SBP, physical examination, altered abdominal examination, presence of open fractures of the lower limb, motorcycle accident and positive FAST.
authors.forename: Samires
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farrath
authors.forename: José Gustavo
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Parreira
authors.forename: Camilla Bilac
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Olliari
authors.forename: Mateus Almeida
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Jacqueline Arantes Giannini
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Perlingeiro
authors.forename: Silvia Cristine
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Soldá
authors.forename: José Cesar
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Assef
mesh_terms: D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000175:diagnosis*