Three-year-old traumatic liver injury patient treated successfully using transcatheter arterial embolization

INTRODUCTION: Liver injury is the most vulnerable to blunt abdominal trauma. Diagnostic evaluation and treatment of blunt liver trauma in children have changed essentially over the last decades. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 3-year-old girl, weighing 10 kg was run over by a car and admitted to our hospital. Due to the liver injury and increased intra-abdominal hemorrhage confirmed by computed tomography, emergent transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) was performed. Hemostasis was successfully obtained without complications. The patient had a good postoperative course and was discharged on the 9th day after admission. DISCUSSION: To the best of our knowledge, this case is the youngest and lowest weight emergency TAE success cases of childhood liver injury. TAE is an alternative to laparotomy and a useful procedure to accomplish nonsurgical management in adult who are hemodynamically stable and have no other associated injury requiring laparotomy. On the other hand, TAE is considered to have some complications in child cases because of the small diameter of the artery and the tendency to spasm. Our case showed that TAE can be a safe option for emergency hemostasis in pediatric trauma cases weighing 10 kg. CONCLUSION: Emergency physicians must be aware that radiological intervention is an important adjunct to management of childhood liver injury.