Objectives: The management of renal trauma has undergone important changes in recent years, the current tendency being more conservative than in the past. The present study analyzes our experience over the last 11 years in patients with isolated renal trauma or associated to other lesions.
Methods: Over an 11-year period (January 2001- December 2011 ) we documented a total of 149 renal injuries (47 isolated and 102 associated renal lesions ). An analysis was made of the demographic characteristics of the two groups, as well as of the clinical presentation, diagnostic methods, grade of injury, associated lesions, emergency management, mortality, and length of stay.
Results: Closed trauma secondary to fall was the most frequent type of injury in both groups. The grade of injury proved similar in both (80%corresponding to grades 1-3 and 20% to grades 4-5). Conservative management was used in 93% of all isolated renal injuries and in 75.5% of the polytrauma patients with 10% and 5.7% failure rates respectively. Mortality rates were 0% and 7.8%, respectively.
Conclusions: Renal injures are increasingly subjected to conservative management, with treatment generally being somewhat more aggressive in polytrauma patients.