Is pelvis x-ray essential in stable trauma patients? Step towards lowering the treatment cost.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of clinical examination in detecting pelvic fractures in patients with blunt trauma..

Methods: The cross-sectional prospective study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from January to June 2015, and comprised alert, awake blunt-trauma patients. Pelvis examination findings were compared to routine pelvic X-rays. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis..

Results: Of the 133 patients, 122 (92%) were males. Overall mean age was 37 ±14.2 years. There were 14 (10%) patients who were true positives with pelvic fracture diagnosis on both clinical examination and pelvic X-ray, while 14 (10%) were false negative on examination. Clinical examination missed 2 patients with evidence of fracture on X-ray and were considered false positive. Besides, 103 (77.4%) patients were true negative as both clinical exam and X-ray showed no evidence of fracture.

Conclusion: Omitting pelvic X-ray in the recommended protocol can avoid unnecessary financial burden and reduce undesirable radiation exposure..