[Role of surgery in closed abdominal trauma]

Over the past twenty years, nonoperative management has increasingly been recommended for the care of patients with blunt abdominal trauma. Emergency laparotomy remains the rule in patients with hemodynamic instability or in those with peritonitis due to intestinal perforation. Surgical treatment of liver and splenic lesions tends to be more conservative. After assessment of the lesions by computed tomography, nonoperative management in intensive care unit is allowed in the majority of patients.