MAINTAINING IMMOBILISATION DEVICES ON TRAUMA PATIENTS DURING CHEST AND PELVIC X-RAY: A FEASIBILITY STUDY
Abstract BACKGROUND The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of different vacuum mattresses on standard resuscitation bay conventional radiography of chest and pelvis, especially regarding artefacts. METHODS We used a mobile X-ray machine to perform chest and pelvic conventional radiography on an anthropomorphic whole body phantom with a trauma transfer board, three different vacuum mattresses and without any stabilization device. The vacuum mattresses were investigated in activated, deactivated and stretched after deactivated states. Two radiologists assessed the artefacts independently. Agreement was measured using kappa coefficient. RESULTS All radiographs were of good technical quality and fully diagnostic. With the exception of one disagreed occurrence, artefacts were seen to hamper clinical judgement exclusively with activated vacuum mattresses. There was substantial agreement between the two radiologists on artefact assessment. The observed agreement was 0,82 with a kappa coefficient of 0,71. The first vacuum mattress caused no artefacts hampering with clinical judgment. CONCLUSION Our study concludes that it is feasible to maintain some vacuum mattresses through resuscitation bay conventional radiography of chest and pelvis. They do not result in artefacts hampering with clinical judgment. Our vacuum mattress nr 1 is recommendable for this purpose. Together with our previous findings our present results indicate that some vacuum mattresses may be used throughout the initial resuscitation bay assessment and CT examination.