The reliability of excretory urography as a screening examination for blunt renal trauma.

A prospective study was designed to evaluate the reliability of excretory urography (EU) in excluding renal damage in patients with blunt abdominal trauma, using contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) as the "gold standard" of diagnostic studies. Sixty patients with indications for genitourinary evaluation and with normal EU underwent CECT. Five renal injuries were demonstrated by CECT in patients with negative EU: one contusion, one subcapsular hematoma, two perirenal hematomas, and one renal laceration. All of these lesions resolved with conservative patient management. Thus, the CECT findings did not alter treatment in these five patients.