This report presents a retrospective clinical study of 74 cases of abdominal injuries, operated at department of surgery, Kangneram General Hospital during the period of 4 years from Oct. 1979 to Sept. 1983, the following results were obtained.
1) The sex distribution was 62 males and 12 females with the ratio of 5.1 : 1.
2) In age distribution, 2nd and 3rd decade were predominant (70.8%).
3) The seasonal distribution was not significant.
4) Among the 74 cases of abdominal trauma, blunt injuries were 55 cases (74.33%) and penetrating injuries were 19 cases (25.67%). According to the cause of injuries, violence(40.55%) were most common, followed by stab wounds (25.67%), falling down (18.92%) and traffic accidents (14.86%).
5) The patients who were operated, 1224 hrs. (29.8%) from injuries were most common.
6) The chief clinical manifestations were abdominal pain (94.59%), abdominal tenderness (91.89%), rebound tenderness (82.43%) and abdominal rigidity (81.08%).
7) The plain films of the abdomen showed free air under the diaphragm in 18 cases (64.28%) of 28 cases with hollow viscus rupture due to blunt abdominal trauma.
8) The number of cases which showed positive findings were 25 cases (78.12%), among 32 cases of blunt abdominal trauma in which abdominal paracentesis were performed.
9) The injuried organs were small bowel (32.14%), mesentery and omentum (15.47%), liver (13.69%), spleen (11.90%), and Pancreas (9.52%), in order of frequency.
10) 11 cases (14.86%) had more than 2 combined intra-abdominal injuries and 25 cases (33. 8%) had associated extra-abdominal injuries, such as bone fracture (52.0%), head injury (30.%), pneumo-hemothorax (12.0%) and diaphragmatic rupture (4.0%).
11) In regard to the treatment modalities, primary closure or segmental resection with end to end anastomosis were mainly performed in small bowel injuries and colostomy in colon injuries. In 11 liver injuries, simple suture ligation was performed in the 9 cases (81.81%), segmentectomy with packing in one cases (9.0%) and gauze packing in one cases (9.0%). The last case was performed hepatic artery ligation and segmentectomy duo to rebleeding after initial hemostasis but he was died of hemorrhagic shock.
12) The ratio of incidence of post operative complication was 25.67%. Wound infection (1
0.82%) was the most common complication, followed by pulmonary complication (6.75%) and sepsis (2.7%), in order of frequency.
13) The overall mortality rate was 5.4%. The main causes of death were sepsis, hemorrhagic shock and acute renal failure.
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