Computed tomography during initial management and mortality among hemodynamically unstable blunt trauma patients: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Although many hemodynamically unstable trauma patients undergo computed tomography (CT) to identify a source of bleeding, this practice is currently only recommended by a few guidelines. To clarify whether CT has harmful effects among these patients, we examined the association between CT during initial management and mortality among unstable blunt trauma patients. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study based on Japan Trauma Data Bank 2004–2014 registry data. Study population was adult blunt trauma patients with hypotension on arrival. The primary outcome was the in-hospital mortality. Two types of analyses were performed to adjust for confounding factors including propensity score inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW) and instrumental variable (IV) analysis. RESULTS: Among 5,809 patients who met inclusion criteria, 5,352 (92.1%) underwent CT. The No CT group was more likely to have severe physiological conditions and lower probability of survival than those of the CT group. In IPTW analysis adjusting for measured confounders, we found a significant protective effect of undergoing CT on in-hospital mortality (excess deaths: −20.6 per 100 patients, 95% CI −26.2 to −14.9). In IV analysis adjusting both for measured and unmeasured confounders, the association between CT and mortality was not statistically significant (excess deaths: −4.1 per 100 patients, 95% CI −23.1 to 14.8). DISCUSSION: We did not find clinically meaningful harmful effect of CT on survival for unstable blunt trauma patients even after adjusting both for measured and unmeasured confounders. CONCLUSIONS: Our results did not support the recommendation of current guideline. We suggest physicians should consider CT as one of the diagnostic options even when patients are unstable. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13049-017-0396-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.