Blunt liver trauma at Sunnybrook Medical Centre

Between 1 June 1976 and 30 June 1985 Sunnybrook Medical Centre Regional Trauma Unit admitted 2,016 patients of whom 220 (11%) sustained liver injury. Of these 220 patients, 211 (96%) sustained blunt liver trauma; 175 of 176 patients who underwent open peritoneal lavage had a true positive lavage. Resuscitation was successful in 212 patients, of whom 209 underwent laparotomy and three were treated nonoperatively: 129 of 209 patients (62%) required only minor surgical treatment; the remaining 80 patients (38%) required major surgical procedures. The overall mortality was 29% (64/220). Eight patients died during resuscitation, one of them of liver hemorrhage. Of the 56 patients who died after admission, the cause of death was head injury in 31, liver hemorrhage in 11 (five intraoperatively) and 14 died of other causes. Overall, liver hemorrhage was the cause of death in 12 of 64 deaths (19%). In other words, 12 of the total of 220 patients (6%) died from liver-related mortality.