Abstract
Introduction
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of ultrasonography (USG) in identifying
metacarpal bone fractures in patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) with
hand injury.
Materials and methods
Patients who were admitted to a training and research hospital's ED during the study
period with hand trauma and had suspected metacarpal fractures were included in the
study. They were examined for metacarpal fracture by USG and x-ray. Hand radiographs
reviewed by an emergency physician were considered to be the criterion standard diagnostic
tool. Ultrasonography results were compared to x-ray results.
Results
Ninety-eight ultrasound examinations were performed on 96 adult patients who were
enrolled in the study. The mean age of the patients was 30.1 ± 11.8 years; 79.2% of the patients were male. Right hand injury was observed in 69.4%
of the cases. Forty metacarpal fractures were detected in 38 patients on x-ray. We
found a sensitivity of 92.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 78.5-98), a specificity
of 98.28% (95% CI, 89.5-99.9), a positive predictive value of 97.37% (95% CI, 84.5-99.8),
and a negative predictive value of 95% (95% CI, 85-98) for USG to detect metacarpal
fractures when compared to x-ray imaging.
Conclusions
Under the light of these results, we suggest that USG may be an option for detecting
metacarpal fractures and prevent unnecessary x-ray imaging examinations in patients
presenting to the ED with hand trauma.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: June 28, 2016
Accepted:
June 25,
2016
Received in revised form:
June 24,
2016
Received:
February 10,
2016
Footnotes
☆Sources of support: None.
☆☆Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
