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Nonoperative management is acceptable treatment for minor pancreatic injuries. However, management of major pancreatic duct injury in children remains controversial. We present our experience in treating isolated pancreatic duct injury. We describe the cases of three male patients treated for complete pancreatic duct disruption in the past 5 years at our institution. We performed pancreatic duct repair to avoid distal pancreatectomy and to maintain normal pancreatic function. All patients underwent enhanced computed tomography and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the early period. The injuries were classified as grade III according to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma classification. In two cases, we performed end-to-end anastomosis of the pancreatic duct during the delayed period. In the third case, we placed a stent across the disruption to the distal pancreatic duct. The patients' postoperative courses were uneventful, and the average hospitalization was 25.6 days after the procedure. At a median follow-up of 36 months (range 14-54 months), all patients remain asymptomatic, with normal pancreatic function, but with persistent distal pancreatic duct dilatation. We suggest that distal pancreatectomy should not be routinely performed in patients with isolated pancreatic duct injury.

Neonates with congenital tracheal stenosis (CTS) sometimes develop respiratory distress and may be difficult to intubate. We used balloon tracheoplasty with a rigid bronchoscope for emergency airway management in neonates with symptomatic CTS. Herein, we describe the balloon tracheoplasty procedure and the early outcomes following its use as the initial treatment of neonatal symptomatic CTS. We performed a retrospective analysis of five neonates with CTS who were initially treated with balloon tracheoplasty at our institution from January 2010 to December 2013. Five patients with a mean birthweight of 2,117 g were treated during the study period. Of these, four developed respiratory distress after birth, and all patients had difficult intubations. In all five patients, definitive diagnosis of CTS was made by rigid bronchoscopy and 3-dimensional reconstruction scan. A total of nine balloon dilatations were performed in five patients. Following balloon tracheoplasty, two patients were extubated, one was extubated after resection and end-to-end anastomosis following initial balloon dilatation, and one remained hospitalized with tracheostomy for tracheomalacia. The remaining patient died from tracheal bleeding associated with congenital heart disease. Although our sample size was small, balloon tracheoplasty is a potentially effective initial treatment for selected cases with neonatal symptomatic CTS.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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