Appendicitis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Appendicitis, including details on symptoms, surgery, causes, treatment.

Segmental omental infarction in childhood: a typical case diagnosed by CT allowing successful conservative treatment.

Coulier B

Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Clinique St. Luc, Rue St. Luc 8, 5004, Bouge, Belgium, bcoulier@belgacom.net.

Segmental omental infarction (SOI) is an uncommon cause of right lower quadrant pain in children that is often misdiagnosed as appendicitis. During the last decade, imaging findings of SOI have proved to be sufficiently typical to avoid unnecessary surgery in the majority of reported adult patients. The condition has a spontaneous favourable evolution under medical treatment. In children the surgical option remains controversial. We report a typical case of SOI in a 10-year-old boy. The diagnosis was suspected by sonography, unambiguously confirmed by multidetector CT and successfully treated conservatively. This report emphasizes the use of CT in selected acute abdominal situations, peculiarly in obese children, to avoid unnecessary surgery.

Published 11 January 2006 in Pediatr Radiol, 36(2): 141-3.
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