TY  - JOUR
T1  - Management of pediatric splenic injury: We agree, more or less: comment on “less is more”
AU  - Aidlen JT, Luks FI
Y1  - 2012/05/01
N1  - 10.1001/archsurg.2012.344
JO  - Archives of Surgery
SP  - 441
EP  - 442
VL  - 147
IS  - 5
N2  - 
Forty years to the month after the success of planned nonoperative management of splenic injuries was first published,1 Lee and colleagues2 provide a snapshot of how widely accepted this approach is today. The rate of splenectomy in children is now only 11%, and the odds of successful nonoperative management are not much lower in a rural hospital than in a tertiary medical center in the city. Newer treatment modalities, in particular, angiographic embolization, have helped decrease the operative rate in adults (although they have found fewer proponents among physicians who treat the pediatric population3). Because these interventions require specialized equipment and skills, it is not surprising that they are more often used in an urban setting than in small rural facilities; after all, surgical exploration remains the safe default.

SN  - 0004-0010
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archsurg.2012.344
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archsurg.2012.344
ER  -