Abstract
Blunt chest trauma is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality on the global stage, and pneumothorax and haemothorax are common life-threatening complications which need immediate diagnosis and management. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound and chest X-ray in identifying the presence of pneumothorax and haemothorax in patients with blunt chest trauma using CT scan as the gold standard. The study was a cross-sectional comparative study that was done on 150 patients attending the surgical department of the Mayo Hospital, Lahore. Each subject was subjected to a CT scan, ultrasonography and chest X-ray in a standard order. The diagnostic performance was assessed in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and a combination of these values as the overall accuracy. Ultrasonography showed sensitivity of 92.6, specificity of 88.4 and diagnostic accuracy of 90.8, respectively, with respect to pneumothorax detection, in comparison with the values of 72.4, 78.4 and 75.1 respectively, by chest X-ray. Ultrasonography had a sensitivity of 94.1, specificity of 85.7, and accuracy of 89.6, whereas the chest X-ray had a sensitivity of 77.0, specificity of 74.1 and a specificity of 74.4. The most accurate modality was CT scan, and diagnostic accuracies were over 97% in both conditions. Statistical analysis showed that there is a significant superiority between ultrasonography and chest X-ray in the two diagnoses. The results justify ultrasonography as a dependable, non-invasive and speedy bedside diagnostic system, especially in emergency and resource-limited contexts. The researchers conclude that ultrasonography is a potential alternative in the absence of CT that can help in the overall management of trauma and patient outcomes.