Conservative treatment of liver trauma.

A marked change toward a more conservative approach in the treatment of abdominal trauma has been noted, especially during the last decade. This change in regimen was first seen in the handling of splenic trauma, initiated by pediatric surgeons. Later, the concept of conservative management was also introduced among adults and it is now widely accepted. Here, an almost mandatory splenectomy has been replaced by attempts at various forms of splenic salvage. The development followed an initial report by King and Shumacker in 1952 on an increased susceptibility to overwhelming sepsis in splenectomized children, findings which later also were demonstrated among adults. It has also been shown that the bleeding from intraparenchymal lesions with an intact splenic capsule or minor capsular tears frequently ceases spontaneously, hereby making nonoperative management possible in selective cases.