Isolated complete jejunal transection following abdominal blunt trauma with delayed presentation

Abstract

In blunt trauma, diagnosis of small bowel injury is infrequent and accounts for less than 1.1% of blunt trauma admissions. Of those, only 0.3% are perforated.1 Isolated transection of the jejunum following blunt abdominal trauma has rarely been reported in literature.2,3 Most cases of small bowel perforations after blunt trauma occur as a result of motor vehicle crashes and falls from heights and are often associated with multiple injuries.4 This is a report of a 26year-old female that presented 14h after being involved in a motor vehicle crash and was found to have complete transection of her proximal jejunum with underlying mesenteric injury. Following the crash, the patient extricated herself from the vehicle, went home, and fell asleep with no significant complaints initially reported. She woke up hours later with severe abdominal pain and presented to our emergency department. CT was performed and revealed free fluid in the abdomen. Subsequently, an exploratory laparotomy was performed that revealed complete jejunal transection with underlying mesenteric injury. Isolated complete transection of the proximal jejunum should be considered in the evaluation of patients following blunt abdominal trauma, and presentation may be delayed up to 14h. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of complete transection of the proximal small bowel following a motor vehicle crash with the longest delay in presentation reported in the literature.