Stab wounds of the abdomen are the most common cause of penetrating wounds and occur during the course of an assault or attempted suicide. The systematic laparotomy or laparoscopy was classical attitude to any penetrating stab wound to the abdomen. It was useless to a significant frequency of negative or non therapeutic laparotomies. The development of cross-sectional imaging and essentially multidetector computed tomography (CT) has profoundly changed the diagnostic approach and treatment of stab wounds of the abdomen by conducting an accurate assessment of the...

•A retrospective study with 58 patients who collated a stab wound to the abdomen considered clinically as penetrating, taken care of the general surgery department of our institution.•All patients were hemodynamically stable and showed no signs of peritoneal irritation. All were explored by abdomino-pelvic or thoraco-abdomino-pelvic helical computed tompography

The average age of patients was 28 years with predominance of men and sex ratio 13.5 (men: 54, women:4). All stab wounds were secondary to a criminal assault. No cases of attempted suicide or work accident has been objectified. In 75% of cases, the wounds were antero-lateral topography, predominant in the left flank. The thoraco-abdominal wounds accounted for 22% of all wounds. In one case the wound was by impalement Table 1 summarizes the various orifices skin input Topography of gateway Number % Antero-lateral wound...

In patients with abdominal stab wounds, computed tomography should be considered to facilitate initial management decisions, as it has the ability to delineate abnormalities suspicious for injury and to guide treatment.CT had an excellent sensitivity and specificity to specify a penetrating character of the wound by the identification of a break of the peritoneum, hemoperitoneum and / or pneumoperitoneum. In our study and was also useful for demonstrating solid organ injuries. Finally, CT can take stock of thoracic lesions that can be observed in penetrating...

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