Blunt pediatric pancreatic trauma: An update

Blunt pediatric pancreatic trauma is a relatively uncommon problem, and historically has been difficult to manage in a protocolized fashion due to low patient volumes and a heterogeneity of injury severity. Symptoms can be subtle and insidious, and laboratory investigations and imaging studies can be misleading and even normal initially, often leading to a delay in diagnosis. More recently, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma has standardized injury severity into formal grades, which has made treating and studying pancreatic trauma more manageable. In this review, we discuss the epidemiology, clinical presentation, imaging, and management of pediatric pancreatic trauma, with a special in-depth emphasis on the most controversial area of management, patients with transection/major ductal injury. Complications and their management are also touched upon. © Springer Science + Business Media New York 2016.