Performing A Diagnostic Peritoneal Lavage In A Trauma Patient
| Field | Medicine |
| Went Obsolete | 1990 |
| Made Obsolete By | CT Scanning, Ultrasound |
| Knowledge Assumed | Basic Surgical Skills |
| When useful | When Presented with a Patient with either Abdominal Trauma or Suspected Internal Bleeding |
Diagnostic Peritoneal Lavage is the act of making a small incision down the midline of the abdomen and into the peritoneal cavity (which surrounds the abdominal organs such as intestines, stomach, gallbladder, liver, pancreas, spleen), squirting some saline into the cavity using a catheter, waiting a few minutes and withdrawing the fluid to see if there is any blood or faecal material or other substance present. This fluid is usually sent off to the pathology laboratory for further assessment.
Before the advent of CT scanning and Ultrasound it was one of the few ways of making sure that someone had in fact sustained internal bleeding or perforation. However it was unreliable, invasive and generally kind of irritating and no-one was very good at it anyway, not even the pathologists examining the specimen.
viz: Patient: WTF is wrong with me?! Surgeon: WTF am I doing?! Pathologist: WTF is this thing?!
So hurrah for the CT scan and Ultrasound. Less idiocy, less gruesome lolz.