Methods for reasoning from geometry about anatomic structures injured by penetrating trauma

This paper presents the methods used for three-dimensional (3D) reasoning about anatomic structures affected by penetrating trauma in TraumaSCAN-Web, a platform-independent decision support system for evaluating the effects of penetrating trauma to the chest and abdomen. In assessing outcomes for an injured patient, TraumaSCAN-Web utilizes 3D models of anatomic structures and 3D models of the regions of damage associated with stab and gunshot wounds to determine the probability of injury to anatomic structures. Probabilities estimated from 3D reasoning about affected anatomic structures serve as input to a Bayesian network which calculates posterior probabilities of injury based on these initial probabilities together with available information about patient signs, symptoms and test results. In addition to displaying textual descriptions of conditions arising from penetrating trauma to a patient, TraumaSCAN-Web allows users to visualize the anatomy suspected of being injured in 3D, in this way providing a guide to its reasoning process.