Roentgen Diagnosis of Lacerated Spleen

Abstract

In civilian life traumatic injury of an intra-abdominal organ is by no means a rarity, particularly since the advent of the automobile and the mechanization of industry. In perforations of a hollow viscus the radiologist has been of distinct aid to the clinician and surgeon in demonstrating free air beneath the diaphragm. In lacerations of the liver and spleen he has been less helpful. At the present time, under the conditions of global war, careful evaluation of roentgen films, with the object of diagnosing hepatic or splenic injuries, is of special importance. Blast injuries due to bombs may cause rupture of solid or hollow viscera without external evidence. The differentiation of intraperitoneal from extraperitoneal injury may not only be baffling to the diagnostician, but is often of great concern to the surgeon in his concrete approach to a specific case. We shall attempt in this paper to record and analyze the x-ray evidence of splenic lacerations. Anatomy of Spleen The spleen is a soft, highly elas...