Splenic Embolisation Decisions

The spleen is often injured when the body sustains trauma. This leads to bleeding. The bleeding can be stopped by a big operation cutting open the belly or a small hole in your groin where a blood vessel can be accessed and through which the bleeding can be stopped. We do not know what types of injuries it is best to use this procedure. We do not know why we do not use the smaller technique in some instances. We also do not know exactly which of a number of ways to stop the bleeding could be better. We have a big data set in the trauma and audit research network (TARN) which we would like to use to help answer these questions and design further studies to better answer the questions. Adding a few other pieces of data, we are able to answer key questions into how the spleen will best be treated in trauma.