Complex abdominal trauma in an Intermediate Surgical Care Unit

Abstract

The abdominal traumatism represents the 15-20 % of the total of the traumatic lesions. Our objective was to know the behavior of the abdominal traumatism, predominant in the patients with complex lesions. We went through the clinical records of 24 patients who entered the Surgical Intermediate Care Unit of the Central Military Hospital Luis Díaz Soto during 2002, with diagnosis of predominant abdominal trauma. There was a higher incidence of the closed traumatism (70.8 %), predominating the male sex (75 %). The peritoneal diagnostic lavage and the abdominal punction were the most used procedures. The most frequent lesions were those in the liver, the small intestine and the retroperitoneal hematoma. Hepatorraphy (30 %) was the most used surgical technique. The most frequent complications (29.2 %) intra-abdominal sepsis, complications of the surgical injury and electrolytic disturbs. There was 8.3 % of mortality. There was not any variation of the abdominal traumatism behavior tendency achieved in the last years, its frequency is steady and the surgical treatment is still the most used.