Radiologic gastrostomy is associated with a higher success rate than is PEG and less morbidity than either PEG or surgery.

During the approximately 20 years that percutaneous abscess drainage (PAD) has been an extant procedure and as the millennium begins, PAD has become, by consensus, the treatment of choice for abscesses. Indications for PAD continue to expand, and currently almost all abscesses are considered amenable. On occasion, PAD is an adjunctive procedure that provides a beneficial temporizing effect for the surgeon who eventually must operate for a coexisting problem such as a bowel leak. Simple unilocular abscesses are cured almost uniformly by PAD; more complicated abscesses, such as those with enteric fistulas (e.g., diverticular abscess) or pancreatic abscesses, have cure rates ranging from 65% to 90%. Various catheters and insertion techniques have proven effective. Ultrasonography, computed tomography, and fluoroscopy are the staple modalities that guide PAD. PAD is the prototype interventional radiology procedure, providing detection of the abscess by imaging, needling for diagnosis, and catheterization for therapy.

Percutaneous catheter drainage with sclerosis is an effective method of therapy for symptomatic hepatic cysts; careful patient selection is essential for proper therapy.

This pictorial review discusses multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) cases of non-vascular traumatic chest injuries, with a brief clinical and epidemiological background of each of the pathology. The purpose of this review is to familiarize the reader with common and rare imaging patterns of chest trauma and substantiate the advantages of MDCT as a screening and comprehensive technique for the evaluation of these patients. Images from a level 1 trauma center were reviewed to illustrate these pathologies. Pulmonary laceration, pulmonary hernia, and their different degrees of severity are illustrated as examples of parenchymal traumatic lesions. Pleural space abnormalities (pneumothorax and hemothorax) and associated complications are shown. Diaphragmatic rupture, fracture of the sternum, sternoclavicular dislocation, fracture of the scapula, rib fracture, and flail chest are shown as manifestations of blunt trauma to the chest wall. Finally, direct and indirect imaging findings of intrathoracic airway rupture and post-traumatic foreign bodies are depicted. The advantage of high quality reconstructions, volume rendered images, and maximal intensity projection for the detection of severe complex traumatic injuries is stressed. The limitations of the initial chest radiography and the benefits of MDCT authenticate this imaging technique as the best modality in the diagnosis of chest trauma.