[Pancreatic injuries. Report on 42 cases (author's transl)]

Between 1975 and 1980, 42 pancreatic injuries have been managed, they represented 9.5 per cent of abdominal injuries. Nine patients received penetrating trauma and thirty three patients sustained blunt trauma, the majority of them was a road accident. Associated and concomitant injuries of abdominal organs were present in 81 per cent of cases with the pancreatic trauma. More than 66 per cent have multiple brain, thoraco, abdominal, and bones injuries. Thirty two patients have been treated before the sixth hour. The emergency surgical treatment has been conservative in twenty six patients and a primary resection has been performed in twelve patients, (with eleven partial pancreatectomy and one pancreatoduodenectomy). But four patients died on the operating table because they have extensive injuries to several abdominal organs. Postoperative complications were present in 66 per cent of cases. They obliged the drainage of abscesses, three distal pancreatectomy and one pancreatoduodenectomy. The global mortality is 31 per cent, the secondary mortality is 21.4 per cent. The authors conclude thanks to the study of this series and of literature that the frequency of pancreatic trauma increased, and that its gravity is directly related to the number of other organs damages, missed or delayed diagnostic and to an inappropriate emergency treatment, which let necrosis and infection making their deadly evolution.