TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Diagnostic Peritoneal Lavage A1 - Mainis, Leann A1 - Ramirez, René A2 - Reichman, Eric F. PY - 2018 T2 - Reichman's Emergency Medicine Procedures, 3e AB - The diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL) was first described in 1965 by Dr. Root who developed a method for sampling the peritoneal cavity to more rapidly determine the presence of hemoperitoneum after trauma.1 The initial physical examination can be misleading in up to 45% of blunt trauma patients, and DPL can be useful in diagnosing intraabdominal injury in a timely fashion.2-4 DPL is performed less frequently due to the use of focused abdominal sonography for trauma (FAST) bedside ultrasound (US) scanning and helical computed tomography (CT).5,6 DPL is the only invasive test of the three and remains a highly sensitive test for mesenteric and hollow viscus injuries.4,7,8 The main disadvantages of DPL are that it gives no information about the specific organ injured and a positive DPL requires an invasive procedure in the Operating Room versus conservative management and observation. The overall use of DPL is declining with the progression of advanced CT scanning, repeat/serial FAST exams, and the increased availability of these modalities.3,5,9 SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/19 UR - accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1159799826 ER -