What Is Blunt Force Trauma?

Medical |November 20th, 2018

Blunt force trauma is when the body is hit with an object that is blunt, or not sharp, with enough force to cause significant damage. It is important to note that initially there may be little in the way of overt clinical signs to indicate that serious internal abdominal injury has occurred, making assessment more challenging and requiring a high degree of clinical suspicion. However, that does not mean that the body has not been damaged in some way. Blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) comprises 75% of all blunt trauma and is the most common example of this injury. The majority occurs in motor vehicle accidents, in which rapid deceleration may propel the driver into the steering wheel, dashboard, or seatbelt causing contusions in less serious cases, or rupture of internal organs from briefly increased intraluminal pressure in the more serious, dependent on the force applied.