The relationship between microscopic hematuria and severity of intraabdominal organ injury on rats that constituted blunt abdominal trauma

Blunt trauma accounts for majority of traumatic injuries, with motor veichle crashes representing the most common mechanism of injury. Head and limb injuries acur most frequently; however, injury to the abdomen can be potentially life treathening. Missed or delayed diagnoses remain the most serious pitfalls in the management of abdominal injuries. Because of this management of abdominal trauma should be approached in an organised, vigilant, and knowledgeable manner. Reliance on key clinical features and the timely use of diagnostic procedures tremendously alter morbidity and mortality.Microscopic hematuria is an extreamly important sign in blunt abdominal trauma patients. Controversies stil exist on literature wheather microscopic hematuria is a sign of intraabdominal extrarenal organ injury or not and the place of microscopic hematuria in the radiographic assessment of blunt abdominal trauma patients.In our study blunt abdominal trauma rat model is developed which have not been studied before. We aimed to define the releation between microscopic hematuria and extrarenal intraabdominal organ injury by performing sublethal blunt abdominal trauma on this model.In our experiments firstly we defined lethal and sublethal maximal intensity of impact energy for abdominal trauma. After that the rats were separated into groups according to the sublethal impact energy that will be applied. Blunt abdominal trauma induced by droping standart mass. Macroscopic laparotomy findings, histopathologic liver, spleen and renal injury grades and microscopic hematuria levels were recorded in these groups.It is found that there is statistically significant correlation between trauma intensity and histopathologic liver, spleen and renal injury grades. According to this finding we concluded that the rat model herein is suitable for our study and the future studies on organ injuries due to blunt abdominal trauma.Statistically significant releation between microscopic hematuria and severety of abdominal trauma has been found. That is also true for microscopic hematuria and macroscopic laparotomy grades. But there is no association between the degree of microscopic hematuria and histopathologic liver, spleen and renal injury grades.As a result microscopic hematuria could be accepted as predictor of the severity of trauma and macroscopic intraabdominal organ injury. This finding is consistent with the literature.Based on our study we recomend abdominal imaging (primarily abdominal computed tomography) and attentive assessment for intraabdomininal organ injury in stable blunt abdominal trauma patients with hematuria. Laparotomy cut-of point must be lowered for unstable blunt abdominal trauma patients with hematuria. With these the morbidity and mortality rates of blunt abdominal trauma could be decreased.Key Words: Blunt abdominal trauma, microscopic hematuria, rat model