any resuscitation or triage. then, the history of the accident or injury is amplified with any medical, dietary (timing of last oral intake) and history, from whatever sources such as family, friends, previous treating physicians that might be available. this method is sometimes given the mnemonic "sample". the amount of time spent on diagnosis should be minimized and expedited by a combination of clinical assessment and appropriate use of technology, such as diagnostic peritoneal lavage (dpl), or bedside ultrasound examination (fast) before proceeding to laparotomy if required. if time and the patient's stability permits, ct examination may be carried out if available. its advantages include superior definition of the injury, leading to grading of the injury and sometimes the confidence to avoid or postpone surgery. its disadvantages include the time taken to acquire images, although this gets shorter with each generation of scanners, and the removal of the patient from the immediate view of the emergency or surgical staff. many providers use the aid of an algorithm such as the atls guidelines to determine which images to obtain following the initial assessment. these algorithms take into account the mechanism of injury, physical examination, and patient's vital signs to determine whether patients should have imaging or proceed directly to surgery. recently, criteria have been defined that might allow patients with blunt abdominal trauma to be discharged safely without further evaluation. the characteristics of such patients include: absence of intoxication no evidence of lowered blood pressure or raised pulse rate no abdominal pain or tenderness no blood in the urine. to be considered low risk, patients would need to meet all low-risk criteria. treatment when blunt trauma is significant enough to require evaluation by a healthcare provider, treatment is typically aimed at treating life-threatening injuries, which requires ensuring the patient is able to breathe and preventing ongoing blood loss. if there is evidence that the patient has lost blood, one or more intravenous lines may be placed and crystalloid solutions and/or blood will be administered at rates sufficient to maintain the circulation. some patients may require a surgical operation called an exploratory laparotomy to repair internal injuries. epidemiology worldwide, a significant cause of disability and death in people under the age of 35 is trauma, of which most are due to blunt trauma.