Pancreatic injury in abdominal trauma in children:difficult to diagnose and treat

Traumatic injury of the pancreas is rare in children. It is often difficult to diagnose due to the lack of signs and symptoms, and shortly after trauma laboratory values may be normal. In addition, ultrasound and CT are often not specific. The treatment of grade 1 and 2 injury is non-operative. Although there seems to be a shift towards non-operative management of grade 3-5 injuries (with injury of the pancreatic duct), this is still a matter of debate. We describe 3 children, a girl of 2.5 years-old and a boy of 7 years-old, with grade 3 pancreatic injuries and an 8-year-old boy with a grade 2 injury. We demonstrate that the diagnosis is hard to establish, while the consequences of this injury can be serious. Thinking of pancreatic injury is most important to its diagnosis. We advocate referral to or consultation of specialized centres in these cases.