An Emergency Case of Posterior Abdominal Stab Wound Treated by Thoracotomy and Laparotomy

Abstract

A 49-year-old man was presented to our hospital with a kitchen knife embedded in a left lateral position. Upon arriving, we judged a cardiac arrest imminent. He was placed in the right lateral position and a resuscitative thoracotomy and laparotomy was performed in the emergency room. The knife was carefully removed and he was turned to a spine position. We sutured the liver and mesentery injuries, and packed gauze on the liver's surface and Gerota fascia. Thereafter, we declamped the aortic cross-clamp and confirmed the stability of the patient's circulatory dynamics. We performed postoperative interventional radiology and stopped the bleeding from the right renal and lumbar arteries. The next day, we performed a second-look operation in which we repaired the right kidney and diaphragm injuries and closed the abdomen. The postoperative course was favorable, and the patient was discharged without complications on postoperative day 11.

Here we described a case of a posterior abdominal stab wound that was treated by a thoracotomy and laparotomy in the emergency room. Our findings suggest that, in cases of rare posterior abdominal penetrating stab wounds, postural change timing and damaged organ predictions are important.