Detailed information gain and therapeutic impact of whole body computed tomography supplementary to conventional radiological diagnostics in blunt trauma emergency treatment: a consecutive trauma centre evaluation

PURPOSE: The indication of whole body computed tomography (WBCT) in the emergency treatment of trauma is still under debate. We were interested in the detailed information gain obtained from WBCT following standardized conventional imaging (CI). METHODS: Prospective study including all emergency trauma centre patients examined by CI (focused assessment of sonography in trauma, chest and pelvic X-ray) followed by WBCT from 2011 to 2017. Radiology reports were compared per patient for defined body regions for number and severity of injuries (Abbreviated Injury Scale, AIS; Injury Severity Score, ISS), incidental findings and treatment consequences (Wilcoxon signed rank test, Spearman rho, Chi-square). RESULTS: 1271 trauma patients (ISS 11.3) were included in this study. WBCT detected more injury findings than CI in the equivalent body regions (1.8 vs. 0.6; p < 0.001). In 44.4% of cases at least one finding was missed by CI alone. Compared to WBCT, injury severity of specified body regions was underestimated by CI on average by an AIS of 1.9 (p < 0.001). In 22.0% of cases injury severity increased by an AIS ≥ 2 following WBCT. In 16.8% of patients additional injury findings resulted in a change of treatment (number needed to profit, NNP = 6 patients): NNP decreased from 25 for patients with an ISS < 7 up to nearly 2 for patients with an ISS > 25 at final evaluation, thereby demonstrating a significant improvement in the NNP with increasing ISS (rho = 0.33, p < 0.001). Moreover, WBCT in 88.4% of patients identified ≥ 1 incidental finding (mean 3.4) vs. 28.9% by CI only (p < 0.001). Overall, WBCT had treatment consequences in 31.9% of cases (NNP = 3.1). CONCLUSIONS: The application of WBCT in addition to CI in the emergency treatment of trauma had therapy consequences for almost every third patient. On the other hand, WBCT appeared not to be indicated (ISS < 8) in at least 2/5 of patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00068-020-01502-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.