6 The AERIS Course: a Focused Abdominal CT Interpretation Course for Abdominal Emergencies Requiring Immediate Surgery

Abstract

Emergency physicians rely heavily on CT scanning to guide their clinical decisions. A significant number of EDs do not have radiology coverage, especially at night, so the EM physician may be called on to interpret their own CT scans to guide patient management. Many EM physicians look at their CT scans but have never had any formal training. Especially in the setting of acute surgical emergencies such as expanding abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), ruptured spleen or perforated viscus, delay for a radiologist interpretation may result in significant morbidity and mortality. In a collaboration between emergency medicine and radiology, our team created a systematic approach to abdominal CT interpretation designed to help EM physicians perform wet reads on CT scans in the setting of acute surgical emergencies. First, a general survey is done covering all of the important organs such as the aorta, liver, spleen, kidneys, pancreas, stomach and bowel, then a focused scan into the suspected pathology. We put this system onto a Power Point presentation. The two hour presentation covered basic CT anatomic pathology then taught the presentations of common surgical emergencies such as appendicitis, nephrolithiasis and surgical catastrophes such as ruptured AAAs and mesenteric ischemia. The Abdominal Emergencies Requiring Immediate Surgery (AERIS) scan is only intended to be a focused scan for acute surgical pathology, and not to replace the diagnostic scan of a radiologist. This course was given at a single University program, and will be given at residency programs throughout the New York metro area. Eventually we hope that focused CT interpretation will become part of the standardized EM curriculum.