title: Celiac dissection after blunt abdominal trauma complicated by acute hepatic failure: case report and review of literature.
abstract: Injuries of the abdominal visceral vessels are uncommon but devastating entities resulting in extremely high rates of mortality. The most common cause of abdominal vascular injuries is penetrating trauma, accounting for 90% to 95% of these injuries. In contrast, blunt trauma accounts for 5% to 10% of all abdominal vascular lesions. Although traumatic injury to the celiac artery is among the rarest of all vascular injuries, mortality can be as high as 75%. We report a 66-year-old patient who sustained multiple injuries in a motor vehicle crash. The initial whole-body computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a combination of severe brain injury and bilateral thoracic lesions. On day 6 after the accident, the patient's clinical situation deteriorated rapidly. At this time, the abdominal arterial CT scan showed a dissection of the celiac artery. Therapeutic anticoagulation was not feasible because of the intracranial hemorrhage. Also the patient's clinical situation worsened so rapidly that interventional therapy, including surgical and endovascular treatment, could not be performed. Finally, the patient died of fulminant hepatic failure, therefore not surviving a potentially treatable injury. The diagnosis of celiac artery dissection in this patient was significantly delayed because the initial trauma CT protocol did not include an arterial phase of the abdominal vessels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Surgery, Campus Innenstadt, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany. Chlodwig.Kirchhoff@med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: Chlodwig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kirchhoff
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stegmaier
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krotz
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Muetzel Rauch
authors.forename: Wolf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mutschler
authors.forename: Karl-Georg
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Kanz
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heindl
mesh_terms: D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000368:Aged; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002445:Celiac Artery / Q000293:injuries*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006499:Hepatic Artery; D006801:Humans; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D009104:Multiple Trauma; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011859:Radiography; D012421:Rupture; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging