title: Clinical management of abdominal trauma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To improve the prognosis of patients with abdominal trauma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between January 1993 and December 2005, 415 patients were enrolled in this research. The patients consisted of 347 males and 68 females with mean age of 36 years (ranging from 3-82 years). All abdominal traumas consisted of closed traumas (360 cases, 86.7%) and open traumas (55 cases, 13.3%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 407 cases (98.1%) were fully recovered from trauma and the other 8 cases (1.9%) died of multiple injuries. The mean injury severity score (ISS) of all patients was 22 while the mean ISS of the patients who died in hospital was 42. Postoperative complications were seen in 9 patients such as infection of incisional wounds (6 cases), pancreatic fistula (2 cases) and intestinal fistula (1 case). All these postoperative complications were cured by the conservative treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Careful case history inquisition and physical examination are the basic methods to diagnose abdominal trauma. Focused abdominal ultrasonography is always the initial imaging examination because it is non-invasive and can be performed repeatedly with high accuracy. The doctors should consider the severity of local injuries and the general status of patients during the assessment of abdominal trauma. The principle of treatment is to save lives at first, then to cure the injuries. Unnecessary laparotomy should be avoided to reduce additional surgical trauma.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. fangguoen@126.com
authors.forename: Guo-en
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Tian-hang
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Cheng-hui
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: DU
authors.forename: Jian-wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.forename: Xu-chao
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Guo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Zhao-zhang
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Li-ye
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Ji-de
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hua
mesh_terms: D000007:Abdominal Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged