ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:

OBJECTIVE: Because of accompanying coexisting organ injuries, blunt colon injuries may be overlooked at the laparatomy and result in complications. In this study, we aimed to investigate the surgical treatment approaches of blunt injuries and related complications.

METHODS:

The retrospective study included 12 patients who were operated on due to colonic injury associated with blunt trauma between January 2005 and December 2010.

RESULTS:

The patients comprised 11 (91.7%) males and 1 (8.3%) female, with a mean age of 32.92±13.83 (17-68) years. The most common etiological factor was motor vehicle accident. One patient had isolated left colon injury, and the others (91.7%) had one or more accompanying coexisting organ injuries. The most common coexisting injured organ was intestine. Five patients (41.7%) had transverse and left colon injuries and 7 patients had mild fecal contamination. The common surgical method was primary suture, which was applied to 7 patients. While ostomy procedures were performed in patients with higher colonic injury score and severity fecal contamination, primary repair and resection-anastomosis procedures were performed in the others. There was a correlation between the severity of colon injury and fecal contamination with surgical methods (respectively p=0.026, rho=0.808 and p=0.008, rho=0.577). Four patients (%33.3) had complications. The hospital stay was 6.08±2.64 (1-10) days. One patient, who had colonic and splenic injuries, had died in the first postoperative 24 hours due to the hemorrhagic complication.

CONCLUSION:

Successful results may be obtained with appropriate surgical procedure according to the peritoneal fecal contamination and colonic injury severity score.