[Value of sonography for acute diagnosis and for further examination of blunt abdominal trauma in children].

For the investigation of the abdomen following blunt trauma there are, in addition to clinical examination, peritoneal lavage, laparoscopy, sonography, CT and scintigraphy. Sonography has proved particularly reliable without stressing the patient. This has been demonstrated by the examination of 73 children in whom there was only one false positive and no false negative finding. Sonography is valuable not only as a diagnostic method, but is useful for the follow-up of patients with intraperitoneal or retroperitoneal injuries. Particularly in children, a conservative attitude is often justifiable, since recovery frequently follows without surgery (seven out of 30 children in our clinical material, who had sonographic evidence of parenchymal injuries).