A 6-year-old male who lived with a mother in a single-parent family was referred to the emergency room with multiple traumas. There was no specific finding on CT scan of the other hospital performed 55 days before admission. However, CT scan at the time of admission showed common bile duct (CBD) stenosis, proximal biliary dilatation and bile lake formation at the segment II and III. Endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage was performed, but the tube had slipped off spontaneously 36 days later, and follow-up CT scan showed aggravated proximal biliary dilatation above the stricture site. He underwent excision of the CBD including the stricture site, and the bile duct was reconstructed with Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy. Pathologic report of the resected specimen revealed that the evidence of trauma as a cause of bile duct stricture. While non-iatrogenic extrahepatic biliary trauma is uncommon, a level of suspicion is necessary to identify injuries to the extrahepatic bile duct. The role of the physicians who treat the abused children should encompass being suspicious for potential abdominal injury as well as identifying visible injuries.

Debates exist about the appropriate treatment for pancreatic trauma in children. We intended to examine the safety of the operation of pancreatic trauma in children. This is a retrospective study of 13 patients, younger than 15, who underwent surgery for pancreatic trauma, between 1993 and 2011 in Seoul National University Children's Hospital. Medical records were reviewed for mechanism of trauma, clinical characteristics, radiological findings, operation and outcomes. Organ injury scaling from the AAST (American Association for Surgery of Trauma) was used. All injuries were caused by blunt trauma. Patients with grade III, IV, and those who were difficult to distinguish grade II from IV, underwent surgery due to severe peritonitis. Three patients with grade II were operated for reasons of mesenteric bleeding, tumor rupture of the pancreas, and progression of peritonitis. Distal pancreatectomy was performed in 10 patients and subtotal pancreatectomy and pylorus preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy in 1 patient each. The remaining one underwent surgical debridement because of severe adhesions. The location of injury, before and after operation, coincided in 83.3%. The degree of injury, before and after the operation, was identical in all the patients except for those who were difficult to tell apart grade II from grade IV, and those cannot be graded due to severe adhesion. Postoperative complications occurred in 23.1%, which improved with conservative treatment. Patients were discharged at mean postoperative 12(range 8~42) days. Even though patients with complications took longer in time from diagnosis to operation, time of trauma to operation and hospital stay, this difference was not significant. In conclusion, When pancreatic duct injury is present, or patient shows deterioration of clinical manifestation without evidence of definite duct injury, or trauma is accompanied by other organ injury or tumor rupture, operative management is advisable, and we believe it is a safe and feasible method of treatment.

Traumatic injury is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children. This is a clinical review of pediatric blunt abdominal trauma. A retrospective analysis of the 112 children with blunt abdominal trauma aged 15 years or less treated at the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Chonbuk National University Hospital was performed. The analysis included age, sex, injury mechanism, number and site of the injured organ, management and outcomes. The average age of occurrence was 7.6 years, and the peak age was between 6 and 8 years. There was a male preponderance with a male to female ratio of 2.3:1. The most common cause of blunt abdominal trauma was traffic accidents (61.6%), principally involving pedestrians (79.7%). The accident prone times were between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM, the weekends (40.2%), and the winter respectively. Thirthy-five patients (31.2%) had multiple intra-abdominal organ injuries and the most common injured organ was the liver. Seventy-four cases (66.1%) were managed non-operatively and eleven cases (9.8%) expired. Of the patients who were treated surgically or were to be operated on one patient died before surgery, the remainder died during or after surgery. Risk factors such as number of injured organ, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and trauma scores by Glasgow coma scale (GCS), Pediatric trauma score (PTS), revised trauma score (RTS), injury severe score (ISS), TRISS were significantly correlated with mortality rate.

Trauma is one of the leading causes of death in children. Abdominal trauma is about 10% of all pediatric trauma. This study describes the sex and age distribution, injury mechanism, site of intraabdominal injury, management and mortality of children aged 16 years or less who suffered abdominal trauma. The hospital records of 63 patients treated for abdominal injury between March 1997 and February 2007 at the department of surgery, Inje University Pusan Paik Hospital, were analyzed retrospectively. The peak age of incidence was between 2 and 10 years (78%) and this report showed male predominance(2.7:1). The most common mechanism of blunt abdominal trauma was pedestrian traffic accident (49%). The most common injured organ was liver. More than Grade IV injury of liver and spleen comprised of 4(12%) and 5(24%), respectively. Fourteen cases (22%) had multiple organ injuries. Forty nine cases (78%) were managed nonoperatively. Three patients (4.8%) died, who had Grade IV liver injury, Grade IV spleen injury, and liver and spleen injury with combined inferior vena cava injury, respectively. All of the three mortality cases had operative management. In conclusion, the liver or spleen injury which was more than Grade 4 might lead to mortality in spite of operation, although many cases could be improved by nonoperative management.

A 10-year-old boy was admitted with blunt abdominal trauma by bike handle injury. The patient was operated upon for a generalized peritonitis due to pancreaticoduodenal injury. On opening the peritoneal cavity, complete transection of distal end of common bile duct and, partial separation between pancreas head and second portion of duodenum were found. Ligation of the transected end of the common bile duct, T-tube choledochostomy, and external drainage were performed. A pseudocyst was found around the head portion of the pancreas on the 7th postoperative day with CT. An internal fistula had developed between the pseudocyst and ligated common bile duct. The pseudocyst was subsided after percutaneous drainage. In the case of the undetermined pancreatic injury, percutaneous external drainage can be effective in treating the traumatic pancreatic pseudocyst in a pediatric patient.

The management of twenty-two cllildren with blunt abdominal trauma was analyzed. Nineteen cases had intraabciominal injuries; involving the spleen in 7 cases, the liver in 5, the pancreas in one and the bladder in one. There were five case multiple intraabdominal organ injuries. Seventeen out of 19 patients were treated non-operatively, but one was operated upon later because of delayed bleeding. Thirteen patients required transfusion in the non operated group, the mean values of the Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS) was 11.3. The mean lowest hemoglobulin(LHb) was 9.1 g/dL. The mean value of three cases with extraabdominal injuries were 9.0 and 8.3 g/dL respectively. The average amount of tranfusion was 17.3 ml/kg. In the operated group, 2 cases were transfused an average of 139.8 ml/kg and their mean PTS was 5 and LHb was 6.6 g/dL. In one out of 16 non-operated cases, intrahepatic hematoma developed and but resolved conservatively. However, two out of 3 operated cases suffer complications such as an intubation granuloma and an intraabdominal abscess with wound dehescence. In conclusion, non-operative managenent in child with blunt abdominal trauma was safe in Grade I and II solid organ injuries. The decision for operation should be based on the hemodynamic stability after initial resuscitation including transfusion.