Abstract
Background
Point-of-care ultrasound may be used to facilitate foreign body (FB) localization
and removal. We hypothesized that injection of normal saline adjacent to an FB may
make it easier to detect.
Methods
The study was performed on one embalmed human cadaver. Potential FB sites were created
of wood (24), metal (24), and null (24). Two sonographers evaluated each of the 72
sites both before and after a 25-gauge needle was inserted into each incision and
3 cc of normal saline was injected. Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated
both before and after injection of normal saline. Binomial tests were used to determine
the statistical significance of FB detection before and after injection. A 2-tailed
Student's t test was used to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between
the 2 methods.
Results
Preinjection, 116 (81%) of the 144 interpretations (P ≤ .001) were correct in their assessment of whether or not an FB was present, with
a sensitivity of 81% (95% confidence interval [CI], 72%-88%) and a specificity of
79% (95% CI, 65%-90%). Postinjection, 119 (83%) of these 144 interpretations (P ≤ .001) were correct in their assessment of whether or not an FB was present, with
a sensitivity of 85% (95% CI, 77%-92%) and a specificity of 77% (95% CI, 63%-88%).
This difference was not significant (P = .08; 95% CI, −0.04 to 0.01).
Discussion
Ultrasound was reasonably accurate, sensitive, and specific in identifying 1-cm metal
and wood FBs. Although accuracy and sensitivity did improve after normal saline injection,
this difference was not significant.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: June 05, 2016
Accepted:
June 1,
2016
Received in revised form:
May 10,
2016
Received:
March 25,
2016
Footnotes
☆There is no grant support or involvement.
☆☆There are no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.