Man lernt nie aus – zu spät erkannt
Delayed diagnosis with often fatal consequences for the patient still occurs far too frequently and in a variety of injury types. Typical constellations include for example common, generally well-known diseases with rare complications, which can be worsened by additional therapy or concomitant diseases, such as the case presented here of an atypical femur fracture while under bisphosphonate therapy. Other examples include rarer injury types which, when identified late, are associated with serious complications, such as potentially life-threatening supraaortic vascular injury, as also presented in this article. Since multislice CTA has proved to be a safe diagnostic method for identifying the latter in patients with high-speed trauma to the head, neck and/or thorax, it should be considered for screening examinations as part of shock-room treatment.