Damage control surgery for grade IV blunt hepatic injury with multiple organ damage in a child: a case report

BACKGROUND: Intra-abdominal hemorrhage caused by blunt hepatic injury is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with abdominal trauma. Some of these patients require laparotomy, and rapid decision-making and life-saving surgery are essential. Damage control (DC) surgery is useful for treating children in critical situations. We performed this technique to treat an 8-year-old boy with grade IV blunt hepatic injury and multiple organ damage. This is the first report of the use of the ABTHERA Open Abdomen Negative Pressure Therapy System (KCI, now part of 3 M Company, San Antonio, TX, USA) for DC surgery to rescue a patient without neurological sequelae. CASE PRESENTATION: An 8-year-old boy was brought to the emergency department of our hospital after being run over by a motor vehicle. He had grade IV blunt hepatic injury, thyroid injury, and bilateral hemopneumothorax. Although he was hemodynamically stable, the patient’s altered level of consciousness, the presence of a sign of peritoneal irritation, and suspicion of intestinal injury led us to perform exploratory laparotomy. As part of a DC strategy, we performed gauze packing to control hemorrhage from the liver and covered the abdomen with an ABTHERA Open Abdomen Negative Pressure Therapy System to improve the patient’s general condition. Eighteen days after admission, the patient was diagnosed with a biliary fistula, which improved with percutaneous and external drainage. He had no neurological sequelae and was discharged 102 days after injury. CONCLUSION: The DC strategy was effective in children with severe blunt hepatic injury. We opted to perform DC surgery because children have less hemodynamic reserve than adults, and we believe that using this strategy before the appearance of trauma triad of death could save lives and improve outcomes. During conservative management, it is important to adopt a multistage, flexible approach to achieve a good outcome.