Pancreatic trauma: acute and late manifestations

A retrospective analysis of 47 patients with pancreatic trauma is presented. A total of 43 patients presented with acute pancreatic injury, 32 after blunt abdominal trauma. Isolated blunt pancreatic injuries were a considerable diagnostic problem with a mean delay from trauma to operation of 9.4 days. At operation peripancreatic drainage in mild injuries and distal resection in cases of ductal injury were the commonest procedures. The overall mortality was 19 per cent, but only three of the eight deaths were attributable to the pancreatic injury. The overall complication rate was 63 per cent and the pancreatic complication rate was 33 per cent. Four patients presented with chronic pancreatitis resulting from previously untreated blunt abdominal trauma 0.5-21 years earlier. Clinically, they did not differ from the manifestations of chronic pancreatitis of other aetiological origins.