ArticleEmergency medicine international2014
Emergency Ultrasound Predicting the Need for Therapeutic Laparotomy among Blunt Abdominal Trauma Patients in a Sub-Saharan African Hospital.
Article in Emergency medicine international, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of early FAST ultrasound on severe trauma outcomes: a randomized trial in a low-resource African emergency setting (The ALIFAST Trial).European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2025Trial
- Mobile triage units for abdominal trauma in sub-Saharan Africa: current evidence, implementation barriers, and strategies for scale-up.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Review
- Observational
- Road traffic incidents in Uganda: a systematic review study of a five-year trend.Journal of injury & violence research · 2017Article
- Correlation Between Intra-Abdominal Free Fluid and Solid Organ Injury in Blunt Abdominal Trauma.Archives of trauma research · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background. The trauma burden globally accounts for high levels of mortality and morbidity. Blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) contributes significantly to this burden. Patient's evaluation for BAT remains a diagnostic challenge for emergency physicians. SSORTT gives a score that can predict the need for laparotomy. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of SSORTT score in predicting the need for a therapeutic laparotomy after BAT. Method. A prospective observational study. Eligible patients were evaluated for shock and the presence of haemoperitoneum using a portable ultrasound machine. Further evaluation of patients following the standard of care (SOC) protocol was done. The accuracy of SSORTT score in predicting therapeutic laparotomy was compared to SOC. Results. In total, 195 patients were evaluated; M : F ratio was 6 : 1. The commonest injuries were to the head 80 (42%) and the abdomen 54 (28%). A SSORTT score of >2 appropriately identified patients that needed a therapeutic laparotomy (with sensitivity 90%, specificity 90%, PPV 53%, and NPV 98%). The overall mortality rate was 17%. Conclusion. Patients with a SSORTT score of 2 and above had a high likelihood of requiring a therapeutic laparotomy. SSORTT scoring should be adopted for routine practice in low technology settings.
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Registered trials
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