ABSTRACT
Introduction: liver is one of the most injured organs in trauma. We evaluated and grouped the degree of liver trauma and management of each group
Material and Methods: 73 patients with liver trauma admitted in sugery departement from 1992-2002. The patients' informations were written in special forms
Results: 58 male and 15 female, mean age of 30 years. [6-68 years] presenting from 1992-2002 were reviewed. There were 29 cases of penetrating injury and 44 cases of blunt trauma. 7 patient were successfully managed without operation [5 with blunt injury] and were discharged after a mean hospital stay of 7 days. 51 cases were classified as group A [grade 1 and 2] and were managed by suture [with or without drainage], with 3 deaths. 15 cases were classified as group B [grade 3 and 4] and underwent one or more of the following: peri hepatic packing, resectional debridement and hepatotomy with direct suture ligature. 6 of these died from uncontrolled hemorrhage
Conclusion: Judicious clinical assessment and radiological monitoring may reduce the number of unnecessary laparatomies