The following is a summary of “Bladder Deformity and Pelvic Fracture: Indicators of Clinical Severity,” published in the May 2023 issue of Emergency Medicine by Ota et al.

It is well known that extraperitoneal hematomas caused by obstetrics and gynecologic diseases can compress the bladder. However, no reports exist on the clinical significance of pelvic fracture-induced bladder compression. Therefore, the researchers investigated retrospectively the clinical characteristics of bladder compression caused by PF. From January 2018 to December 2021, they conducted a retrospective review of the hospital medical records of all emergency outpatients diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) on arrival based on computed tomography (CT) and treated by emergency physicians in their hospital’s acute critical care medicine department.

In the Deformity group, the bladder was compressed by extraperitoneal hematoma, while in the Normal group, the bladder was not compressed. Variables between the two groups were compared. During the study period, 147 PF patients were enrolled as participants. In the Deformity group, there were 44 patients, while the Normal group had 103 patients. There were no significant gender, age, GCS, heart rate, or outcome differences between the two groups.

However, the average systolic blood pressure in the Deformity group was significantly lower than in the Normal group, as were the average respiratory rate, injury severity score, rate of unstable circulation, rate of transfusion, and length of hospitalization. The current study demonstrates that bladder deformity caused by PF is a poor physiological indicator associated with severe anatomical abnormality, unstable circulation necessitating transfusion, and prolonged hospitalization. Therefore, when treating PF, physicians should evaluate the morphology of the bladder.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675723000979