title: Nonoperative treatment of blunt splenic injury.
abstract: A spleen-preserving program was implemented at the author's institution during the mid-1980s using a five-part injury-grading scale that is similar and comparable to the AAST classification. Since that time, all patients with splenic injuries admitted to the Department of Surgery at the Karl-Franzens University Hospital in Graz, a level I trauma center, have been prospectively evaluated with respect to splenic preservation. Analysis of the relation of the severity of organ injury to the use of nonoperative management showed that degree I or II injuries were treated nonoperatively, whereas degree III and IV injuries were usually treated with adhesives, partial resection, or mesh splenorrhaphy; only degree V injuries almost always required splenectomy. With increasing experience in nonoperative management of splenic injuries the initial criteria have become less rigid, and there is now a tendency to attempt it in patients who formerly would have undergone surgery.
authors.affiliation: Departments of General Surgery and Surgical Research, Karl-Franzens University Surgical Clinic, Graz, Austria. selman.uranues@kfunigraz.ac.at
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uranüs
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pfeifer
mesh_terms: D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D013154:Spleen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000293:injuries*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000628:therapy*