Value of emergency ultrasonography in abdominal trauma in childhood.

Abdominal injuries are frequent in children. Their early assessment is the best guaranty Sor an accurate management. Patients and methods. - Seventy children with abdominal trauma were evaluated by early ultrasonography. Results. - This investigation Sound abnormalities in 52 patients, with hematic peritoneal effusion in 26 cases, renal lesion in 20 cases, hepatic lesion ill tell cases, splenic lesion in seven cases and a lesion involving liver, spleen and pancreas in one case. Based on these results, surgery was performed in sir cases. The remaining cases were simply supervised with a good prognosis. Conclusion. - Ultrasonography represents the main investigation in children's abdominal trauma, allowing ail early, efficient and non-costly morphological diagnosis. Computerized tomography (CT) scan has some particular indications. (C) 1998 Elsevier, Paris.