[Duodenal and pancreatic injuries].
BACKGROUND
Pancreatic and duodenal injuries occur rather infrequently and the incidence ranges between 1% and 12% of all abdominal injuries. The high rate of mortality and morbidity (10-40%) depends on associated complication rate of all intra-abdominal organs (90%).


METHODS
Twenty-five cases of pancreatic and duodenal injuries observed between 1987 and 1997, with an incidence of 0.7% of all abdominal injuries, are reported. In 16 cases the cause was penetrating injury (gunshot) and in 9 cases it was blunt abdominal trauma. Only two patients presented an isolated pancreatic lesion, all the others had at least an associated lesion. In all the cases the patients were male and they were submitted to emergency laparotomy.


RESULTS
The mortality rate was 20%, the morbidity was 24%.


CONCLUSIONS
The relatively low incidence of these injuries and the high rate of associated lesions cause a difficult diagnostic and therapeutic approach, the absence of a unified method to follow and the unsatisfactory results observed.
De Angelis
P
P
Divisione di Chirurgia d'Urgenza, Ospedale S. Maria di Loreto Nuovo, Napoli.
Bergaminelli
C
C
Pastore
S
S
Giardiello
C
C
Salzano
A
A
Vecchio
G
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004386:Duodenum / Q000293:injuries* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010179:Pancreas / Q000293:injuries* / Q000601:surgery*; D014948:Wounds, Gunshot / Q000601:surgery*; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000601:surgery*
I traumi del duodeno e del pancreas.