Surgical versus non-surgical management of abdominal injury

Injury to the abdomen can be blunt or penetrating. Abdominal injury can damage internal organs such as the liver, spleen, kidneys, and intestine. There are controversies about the best approach to manage abdominal injuries.

To assess the effects of surgical and non-surgical interventions in the management of abdominal trauma.

We searched the Cochrane Injuries Group's Specialised Register, CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2012, issue 1), MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), and ISI Web of Science: Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science (CPCI-S) all until January 2012; CINAHL until January 2009. We also searched the reference lists of all eligible studies and the trial registers www.controlled-trials.com and www.clinicaltrials.gov in January 2012.

Randomised controlled trials of surgical and non surgical interventions among patients with abdominal injury who are haemodynamically stable and with no signs of peritonitis.

Two review authors independently applied the search criteria. One study involving participants with penetrating abdominal injury met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted by two authors using a standard data extraction form.

One study including 51 participants with moderate risk of bias was included. Participants were randomised to surgery or an observation protocol. There were no deaths among the participants. Seven participants had complications; 5 (18.5%) in the surgical group and 2 (8.3%) in the non-surgical group; the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.42; Fischer's exact). Among the 27 who had surgery six (22.2%) surgeries were negative laparotomies, and 15 (55.6%) were non-therapeutic.

Based on the findings of one study involving 51 participants, which was at moderate risk of bias, there is no evidence to support the use of surgery over observation for people with abdominal trauma.