2019 Volume 39 Issue 4 Pages 751-754
An eight-year-old girl was running down the street and fell forward. Her abdomen was injured in the fall by the water bottle she had been wearing around her neck at the time. After the fall, she complained of abdominal pain. Because she was vomiting frequently, she was taken to our hospital by ambulance. Contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography suggested free air around the duodenum, so she was referred with traumatic gastrointestinal perforation and an emergency laparotomy was performed. The intraoperative findings revealed a rupture 3 cm in diameter at the descending part of the duodenum that was diagnosed as traumatic duodenal injury typeⅡa (Japanese Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Digestive Tract Damage Classification). No injuries to any other organs were recognized. The perforated portion was closed by simple closure. The postoperative course was good, and the patient was discharged from our hospital on the 26th postoperative. Duodenal injury in children caused by a fall while wearing a water bottle around their neck is not an unthinkable occurrence, so we should be alert for such cases.
