WSES position paper on vascular emergency surgery.

Trauma, both blunt and penetrating, is extremely common worldwide, as trauma to major vessels. The management of these patients requires specialized surgical skills and techniques of the trauma surgeon. Furthermore few other surgical emergencies require immediate diagnosis and treatment like a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA).

Nonoperative management of splenic injury grade IV is safe using rigid protocol.

Objective: To demonstrate the protocol and experience of our service in the nonoperative management (NOM) of grade IV blunt splenic injuries.

Methods: This is a retrospective study based on trauma registry of a university hospital between 1990-2010. Charts of all patients with splenic injury were reviewed and patients with grade IV lesions treated nonoperatively were included in the study.