What associated injuries must be suspected and evaluated when pelvic fractures are detected?

If CT is used in the setting of major trauma, why is MRI called upon for minor mechanisms of injury? Why is MRI recommended for some injuries and CT for others? If CT is planned for evaluation of other abdominal and pelvic soft-tissue injuries, is x-ray needed? If so, in which patients? When pelvic x-ray is normal, who needs CT? How should x-ray and CT of the pelvis be interpreted? What are the techniques for pelvic x-ray and CT? What injuries are associated with pelvic trauma? Along the way, we consider a number of critical clinical questions: Because fractures of the proximal femur are often clinically indistinguishable from fractures of the pelvis, we illustrate these injuries here, with more discussion in the chapters on extremity injuries ( Chapter 14 ) and musculoskeletal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, Chapter 15 ). We also discuss high-risk pelvic bony injuries associated with soft-tissue and vascular injuries-which are examined in detail in related chapters on genitourinary imaging ( Chapter 12 ), abdominal trauma ( Chapter 10 ), and interventional radiology ( Chapter 16 ). In this chapter, we review a systematic approach to interpretation of the standard pelvis x-ray, correlating abnormalities with computed tomography (CT) findings. Imaging of the pelvis can be required following minor or major trauma and for nontraumatic painful conditions.

Hip xrays normal