[Diagnosis of duodenal wall hematoma]

Blunt trauma to the epigastrium is becoming an increasingly important cause of injury and may result in retroperitoneal haematoma involving the head of the pancreas as well as the descending duodenum. Ultrasound seems to be of great advantage in the diagnosis of the effects and complications of blunt abdominal trauma such as obstruction of the biliary tree, the gastric outlet and the inferior vena cava. Direct involvement of the descending duodenum seems to be relatively uncommon, intramural haematoma of the duodenum is described only rarely in the literature. Three additional cases of intramural haematoma of the duodenum are reported with particular reference to the recent literature.