Clinical Study and Management of Liver Injuries due to Blunt Trauma Abdomen

Background This study is carried out to assess the impact of liver injuries in blunt trauma abdomen, the etiology and various modes of presentations of liver injuries due to blunt trauma abdomen and to evaluate various available investigation to detect liver injuries and appropriate management strategy to reduce mortality and morbidity and their common complications. Materials and Methods The study population consist of all cases with suspected blunt trauma abdomen presenting to the Surgical Department, Rajiv Gandhi Govt. General Hospital between May 2012 and December 2013. It is an observational cross sectional study involving 52 patients. All the patients included in this study were investigated with FAST (Focused assessment of sonography for trauma), DPL Diagnostic peritoneal lavage, Contrast CT abdomen and other base line investigations. Their hemodynamic stability is taken in to account before these investigations are done. Penetrating trauma and paediatric patients are excluded from this study. Results The most common cause of blunt injury abdomen is road traffic accidents (69.23%) which are comparable to most other studies. In the present study, the maximum number of cases was in the second decade of life (25%). In the present study, 80(80%) were males and 20(20%) were females. Out of 52 cases in our study, (90%) had abdominal tenderness at the time of admission, local (or) generalized guarding was present in 11.5% cases. In our study, 11(21.15%) were managed surgically and 41(78.86%) were managed conservatively. We had mortality of 12 cases of which eight were operated cases. Conclusion Hemodynamic status and associated injuries, irrespective of grading form the most important factor that decides the nature of treatment for a particular patient. So the treatment has to be tailor made for every patient.