BACKGROUND The use of laparoscopy in managing haemodynamically stable patients with penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries in developed countries is wildly practiced, but in Africa the use of laparoscopy is still in its infancy stage. We reviewed a single centre experience in using laparoscopy in Africa for management of patients with penetrating diaphragmatic injuries with or without associated...

BACKGROUND The optimal management of hemodynamically stable asymptomatic patients with anterior abdominal stab wounds (AASWs) remains controversial. The goal is to identify and treat injuries in a safe cost-effective manner. Common evaluation strategies are local wound exploration (LWE), diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL), serial clinical assessment (SCAs) and computed tomography (CT) imaging. ...

Penetrating abdominal injuries are uncommon in the pediatric age group and are associated with a high mortality. A seven year old girl suffered penetrating injury to perineum when she fell onto the trident (trishula - traditional three pronged spear) implanted alongside Lord Shiva's idol. The rod caused perforations of the transverse mesocolon, ileum at 3 places, right lobe of liver, diaphragm,...

penetrating neck trauma is an important area of trauma care that has undergone evolution in the recent past. a remarkable number of changes have occurred in the treatment paradigm as new technologies have developed and as surgeons have explored the outcomes from different treatment protocols. therapy has evolved from no treatment (before effective anesthesia and instrumentation), to non operati...

objective: to evaluate the role of physical examination in decision making for exploring patients with penetrating zone ii neck injury. methods: this was a cross-sectional study being performed in a level i trauma center between 2006 and 2010. the present study reviewed the records of 150 patients with penetrating neck injuries. of 46 cases with zone ii deep platysma neck injuries, 3 patients d...

Pneumatically powered nail guns have been used in construction since 1959. Penetrating injuries to the heart with nail guns have a wide range of presentations from asymptomatic to cardiac tamponade and exsanguination. Mortality related to cardiac nail gun injuries is similar to knife injuries, estimated at 25%. Surgical exploration is the treatment of choice. We describe a case of self-inflicte...

INTRODUCTION Penetrating injury may involve the major vessels in the abdomen. Injury to the abdominal inferior vena cava (IVC) is uncommon and is usually caused by gunshot wounds. Mortality from IVC injuries is high and has changed little over time. AIM The aim of the study was to report a series of IVC injuries from an urban trauma unit and to compare this with reports from similar instituti...

Small bowel encapsulation is a rare entity which is usually found incidentally at autopsy. We report the first case of peritoneal encapsulation encountered serendipitously at laparotomy undertaken for penetrating abdominal trauma and review the literature on peritoneal encapsulation. We also compare this phenomenon to abdominal cocoon and sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis.

Over the past twenty years there has been a shift towards non-operative management (NOM) for haemodynamically stable patients with abdominal trauma. Embolisation can achieve haemostasis and salvage organs without the morbidity of surgery, and the development and refinement of embolisation techniques has widened the indications for NOM in the management of solid organ injury. Advances in compute...

diagnostic peritoneal lavage (dpl) is considered by many as the most important investigation for the early detection of intraperitoneal injury. the aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of dpl as a diagnostic method in evaluating abdominal trauma. a prospectively maintained database of all dpls performed in the past 36 months at sina hospital was analyzed. information relative to the type...