Citation

Thompson NS, Date R, Charlwood AP, Adair IV, Clements WD. Int. J. Clin. Pract. 2001; 55(8): 573-575.

Affiliation

Departments of General Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11695084

Abstract

This report describes a complex syndrome of injuries occurring in a young female who was a back seat passenger wearing a lap-belt restraint in a high-speed road traffic accident. As a consequence of the forced flexion distraction injury of her lumbar spine, she sustained a fracture-subluxation of the first lumbar vertebra in association with a jejunal perforation and extensive small intestinal mesenteric laceration. She also had a large traumatic hernia of the anterior abdominal wall, which was overlooked at primary laparotomy. This report highlights collectively the classical combination of injuries associated with the lap-belt syndrome and demonstrates the importance of carefully inspecting the anterior abdominal wall for deficiencies, because traumatic herniation may be easily overlooked.