seatbelt injury causing small bowel devascularisation case series and review of the literature安全带损伤引起小肠devascularisation病例系列和文献之回顾.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Emergency Medicine International Volume 2011, Article ID 675341, 5 pages doi:10.1155/2011/675341 Case Report Seatbelt Injury Causing Small Bowel Devascularisation: Case Series and Review of the Literature Vincent O’Dowd, Christine Kiernan, Aoife Lowery, Waqar Khan, and Kevin Barry Department of Surgery, Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, Mayo, Ireland Correspondence should be addressed to Kevin Barry, kbarsurg@ Received 12 January 2011; Accepted 15 February 2011 Academic Editor: Chee-Fah Chong Copyright © 2011 Vincent O’Dowd et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The use of seatbelts has increased significantly in the last twenty years, leading to a decrease in mortality from road traffic accidents (RTA). However, this increase in seatbelt use has also led to a change in the spectrum of injuries from RTA; abdominal injuries, particularly intestinal injuries have dramatically increased with the routine use of seatbelts. Such intestinal injuries frequently result from improper placement of the “lap belt”. We present 3 cases in which passengers wearing a seatbelt sustained significant devascularisation injuries to the small bowel requiring emergency surgical intervention. A high index of suspicion is crucial in such cases to prevent delays in diagnosis that can lead to severe complications and adverse outcomes. It is evident that while advocating seatbelt use, the importance of education in correct seatbelt placement should also be a focus of public health strategies to reduce RTA morbidity and mortality. 1. Introduction