Conservative management of abdominal injuries.
OBJECTIVE
Non-operative management of abdominal injuries has recently become more common. Especially non-operative treatment of blunt abdominal trauma is gaining wide acceptance. In this study, the efficacy of non-operative treatment in abdominal trauma (blunt penetrating) is discussed.


METHODS
All patients who received treatment due to abdominal trauma from November 2008 to January 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. The demographic characteristics, type of injury, injured organ, type of treatment (operative vs. nonoperative) and mortality data were evaluated.


RESULTS
The study includes 115 patients treated for abdominal trauma in our department. The mechanism of trauma was stab wounds in 60%, blunt abdominal trauma in 23.5% and gunshot wounds in 16.5%. Forty-two patients (36.5%) were operated for hemodynamic instability and/or peritonitis on admission. The remaining 63.5% of patients (n=73) were treated nonoperatively, 10 of whom required laparotomy during follow-up. The remaining 63 patients were treated with non-operative management. The success rate for non-operative treatment was 86.3% and there was no difference in terms of the types of injuries. The mortality rate was 4.3% (n= 5) in the whole series, but there were no deaths among the patients who had received non-operative treatment. In the whole patient group 54.2% (n=63) were treated nonoperatively.


CONCLUSIONS
Nonoperative treatment in abdominal trauma is safe and effective. Patients with clinical stability and normal physical examination findings can be treated nonoperatively with close monitoring.
Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Mevlana University, Konya, Turkey.
Ahmet
A
Okuş
Department of General Surgery, Konya Teaching Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Barış
B
Sevinç
Department of General Surgery, Konya Teaching Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Serden
S
Ay
Department of General Surgery, Konya Teaching Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Kemal
K
Arslan
Department of General Surgery, Konya Teaching Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Ömer
Ö
Karahan
Department of General Surgery, Konya Teaching Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Mehmet Ali
MA
Eryılmaz
Abdominal injury; abdominal trauma; nonoperative treatment