A Multidisciplinary Approach to Treating Traumatic Pelvic Fractures

Pelvic fractures are traumatic injuries that can be caused by motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle accidents, motor vehicle-related pedestrian injuries, or falls from a significant height. These injuries can be life threatening because of the high vascularity of the pelvis and the difficulty in being able to see bleeding occurring in this area. Traditional approaches to treat pelvic fractures have been pelvic binding, external fixation, and open preperitoneal packing; however, the use of angiography and embolization enables faster pinpointing of the location of the bleeding. Increased use of hybrid ORs for treating traumatic pelvic fractures combines the superior imaging of interventional radiology with an OR that can quickly provide open interventions without needing to move a patient from an interventional radiology suite to another OR. This improvement in technology has combined the resources and knowledge of more diverse disciplines to provide a more centralized approach to improving patient outcomes.