CT-based diagnostic algorithm to identify bowel and/or mesenteric injury in patients with blunt abdominal trauma

Objectives To develop a CT-based algorithm and evaluate its performance for the diagnosis of blunt bowel and/or mesenteric injury (BBMI) in patients with blunt abdominal trauma. Methods This retrospective study included a training cohort of 79 patients (29 with BBMI and 50 patients with blunt abdominal trauma without BBMI) and a validation cohort of 37 patients (13 patients with BBMI and 24 patients with blunt abdominal trauma without BBMI). CT examinations were blindly analyzed by two independent radiologists. For each CT sign, the kappa value, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were calculated. A diagnostic algorithm was built using a recursive partitioning model on the training cohort, and its performances were assessed on the validation cohort. Results CT signs with kappa value > 0.6 were extraluminal gas, hemoperitoneum, no or moderate bowel wall enhancement, and solid organ injury. CT signs yielding best accuracies in the training cohort were extraluminal gas (98%; 95% CI: 91–100), bowel wall defect (97%; 95% CI: 91–100), irregularity of mesenteric vessels (97%; 95% CI: 90–99), and mesenteric vessel extravasation (97%; 95% CI: 90–99). Using a recursive partitioning model, a decision tree algorithm including extraluminal gas and no/moderate bowel wall enhancement was built, achieving 86% sensitivity (95% CI: 74–99) and 96% specificity (95% CI: 91–100) in the training cohort and 92% sensitivity (95% CI: 78–97) and 88% specificity (95% CI: 74–100) in the validation cohort for the diagnosis of BBMI. Conclusions An effective diagnostic algorithm was built to identify BBMI in patients with blunt abdominal trauma using only extraluminal gas and no/moderate bowel wall enhancement on CT examination. Key Points • A CT diagnostic algorithm that included extraluminal gas and no/moderate bowel wall enhancement was built for the diagnosis of surgical blunt bowel and/or mesenteric injury. • A decision tree combining only two reproducible CT signs has high diagnostic performance for the diagnosis of surgical blunt bowel and/or mesenteric injury.