Missed traumatic abdominal injury with challenging management: report of 12-year follow-up

Despite well-established clinical guidelines and use of radiologic imaging for diagnosis, challenges are faced when accurate decisions must be made within seconds. Patients with life-threatening injuries represent 10-15% of all hospitalized trauma patients. In fact, 20% of abdominal injuries will require surgical intervention. In abdominal trauma, it is important to distinguish the difference between surgical intervention, which includes damage control procedures and definitive treatment. The main objective of damage control surgery is to control the bleeding, reduce the contamination and delay additional surgical stress at a time of physiological vulnerability of the patient, along with abdominal containment, visceral protection and avoiding aponeurotic retraction in situations where primary abdominal closure is not possible. However, this technique has high morbidity and comes with a myriad of complications, including development of catastrophic abdomen and formation of enterocutaneous fistulas.