Öztürk, HayrettinÖnen, AbdurrahmanOtçu, SelçukDokucu, Ali İhsanYaǧmur, YusufGedik, Şenol2024-04-242024-04-242002Öztürk, H., Önen, A., Otçu, S., Dokucu, A. İ., Yaǧmur, Y. ve Gedik, Ş. (2002). Abdominal stab wounds in children: An 18-year experience. European Journal of Trauma, 28(2), 85-89.1439-0590https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-002-1186-zhttps://hdl.handle.net/11468/23249https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00068-002-1186-zObjective: Evaluation of the diagnosis, management, and the role of selective treatment in children with abdominal stab wounds. Patients and Methods: 59 children (56 male and three female) were included in the study. The patients' median age was 11.8 years (range, 5-14 years). Time between injury and admission was about 3 h. Laparotomy was performed in 44 patients (74%). Solid organ injury was detected in 32 of these patients (73%) and could not be observed in twelve (27%). 15 patients (26%) were treated conservatively, and only one (6.6%) underwent laparotomy during the follow-up. The stomach was the most frequently injured organ (ten patients), followed by the intestines (nine patients). Types of surgical treatment were as follows: primary suture in 28 patients, resection-anastomosis in three, and osteotomy in two. Results: Some prognostic factors such as presence of abdominal organ evisceration and pneumoperitoneum were not significantly correlated with intraabdominal organ injury, whereas some other risk factors such as acute abdomen on admission (p < 0.002) or abnormal clinical and hemodynamic finding (p < 0.001) showed significant correlation with intraabdominal organ injury. The relative risk (odds ratio) of developing an intraabdominal organ injury was > 2 for patients with signs of an acute abdomen on admission. Postoperative complications were observed in five patients with organ injuries. None of our patients died. Conclusions: Conservative treatment can be safely performed in most children with abdominal stab injuries. Signs of major internal hemorrhage or generalized peritonitis are an absolute indication for emergency operation for abdominal stab wounds. Peritoneal penetrations, free air on the abdominal X-ray, and omental or intestinal evisceration are poor indicators of significant organ injuries, and patients presenting these signs should be closely followed up for developing acute abdominal symptoms.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessAbdominal Stab WoundsChildLaparotomyTraumaArticle28285892-s2.0-003623511110.1007/s00068-002-1186-zN/A