[Traumatic obstruction of the duodenum].

The authors describe a rare observation of traumatic duodenal obstruction by an intramural haematoma with concurrent extensive retroperitoneal haemorrhage and a minor haemoperitoneum in a six-year-old girl who fell and hurt her abdomen on a flat stone. The first symptoms--abdominal pain and vomiting--developed 24 hours after the injury. She was referred to hospital and admitted only three days after the injury with the clinical picture of an inflammatory acute abdomen with peritoneal irritation, concurrent with a respiratory infection persisting for four days. Based on the authors' own observation and data in the literature the diagnostic possibilities are analyzed as well as pitfalls and the optimal therapeutic procedure in this rare type of injury.