Delay in diagnosis and treatment of blunt intestinal injury does not adversely affect prognosis in the pediatric trauma patient.

BACKGROUND: Blunt intestinal injury (BII) requiring surgical intervention in the pediatric trauma population remains difficult to diagnose. We sought to determine whether delay in treatment had an adverse affect on patient outcome.

METHODS: A multi-institutional retrospective chart review using the American Pediatric Surgical Association Committee on Trauma was initiated after Institutional Review Board approval was obtained at each of the 18 institutions. All children younger than 15 years diagnosed with a BII were identified, and only those with BII noted during surgery or autopsy from January 2002 through December 2007 were included. The data form was designed and approved before chart review, and all data were combined into one database.

RESULTS: Three hundred fifty-eight patients were accrued into the study. Two hundred fourteen patients had sufficient data to determine the interval between injury and operation. These were divided into 4 groups (<6, 6-12, 12-24, and >24 hours) based on time from injury to intervention. Early and late complications, as well as hospital days, were compared in each group. There were 3 deaths from an abdominal source in the less-than-6-hour group and 2 in the 6-to-12-hour group. Injury Severity Score was significantly greater in the less-than-6-hour intervention group. There was no correlation between time to surgery and complication rate, nor was there a significant increase in hospital days.

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that delay in operative intervention does not have a significant effect on prognosis after pediatric BII. Appropriate observation and serial examination rather than repeated computed tomography and/or urgent exploration would appear adequate when the diagnosis is in question.