976 Traumatic Damage to The Liver Capsule: An Unusual Cause of Small Bowel Obstruction

A 57-year-old man presented to the emergency department with severe abdominal pain. Three months prior to presentation, he had sustained blunt trauma to his right side whilst cycling but had not sought medical attention. On admission, a CT scan showed small bowel obstruction and he underwent an emergency laparotomy. Intraoperatively, a subcapsular liver haematoma was identified, with incarcerated, necrotic small bowel within the liver capsule. The patient underwent deroofing of the haematoma with an omental patch and a small bowel resection with primary anastomosis.

Small bowel obstruction is a common presentation in A&E and is responsible for half of emergency laparotomies in the UK each year. Although hepatic haematomas are also a relatively common complication of blunt trauma to the abdomen, associated bowel herniation into the liver capsule is very unusual. We believe this is the first time such a case of small bowel obstruction has been reported in the literature and we discuss details of operative management and highlight key learning points.