Modern management of omental torsion and omental infarction: a surgeon's perspective.

Omental infarction is a rare cause of acute abdomen that until recently was diagnosed only on exploratory surgery for presumed acute appendicitis or similar abdominal emergency. The increasing use of high-quality imaging, especially computerized tomography, in the diagnosis of appendicitis and the acute abdomen, has allowed preoperative diagnosis to be made much more often. Coupled with the increasing popularity of laparoscopic appendectomy, this finding has led to a spate of recent reports of omental infarction and omental torsion.