[The value of conservative therapy in kidney trauma in childhood]

Between 1975 and 1991 74 children with a renal injury after blunt abdominal trauma were treated at the Department of Pediatric Surgery of the University Hospital of Berne. There were 22 girls and 52 boys with a mean age of 9.4 years. 55 patients were treated conservatively and 19 operatively. The mean follow-up was for the operated patients 2.6 years and for the not operated 2.5 years. The conservatively treated patients had a shorter hospitalization time, were fewer days on the ICU, needed less blood transfusions and had a minor complication rate compared with the operated ones.