Idiopathic omentum infarction in children — the law of "paired cases": cases report

BACKGROUND: One of the rare causes of abdominal pain in children is an omental infarction. In the literature, there are few descriptions of this pathology in childhood. The disease is often diagnosed only intraoperatively because of its nonspecific clinical picture. Therefore, the clinical cases presented in the article may be of interest to pediatric surgeons. CASES REPORT: In the pediatric surgical department of our clinic, two patients aged five and six years old were treated after being admitted with abdominal pain syndrome, the clinical picture of which did not allow to exclude an acute surgical pathology. A laparoscopy was performed to clarify the diagnosis. Isolated lesions of the segments of the greater omentum were revealed without signs of torsion and pathology of other organs. The operations were completed by resection of the altered omental sections. Histopathological examination revealed hemorrhages and tissue necrosis. DISCUSSION: The localization of pain in the right abdomen necessitates differentiating the disease from acute appendicitis, cholecystitis, and acute gynecological pathology. In the treatment of patients with omental infarction, there are supporters of conservative and surgical strategies. We performed a resection of the affected omental segment, which enabled us to achieve complete recovery in both cases. CONCLUSION: Laparoscopy in unclear diagnostic situations permits the timely diagnosis of an omental infarction, and surgical minimally invasive intervention leads to a successful cure.

Encapsulated Omental Necrosis as an Unexpected Postoperative Finding: A Case Report

Postsurgical fat necrosis is a frequent finding in abdominal cross-sectional imaging. Epiploic appendagitis and omental infarction are a result of torsion or vascular occlusion. Surgery or pancreatitis are conditions that can have a traumatic and ischemic effect on fatty tissue. The imaging appearances may raise concerns for recurrent malignancy, but percutaneous biopsy and diagnostic follow-up assist in the accurate diagnosis of omental infarction. Herein we describe a case of encapsulated omental necrosis temporally related to gastric surgery. Preoperative CT and MRI findings showed the characteristics of encapsulated, postcontrast nonviable tumefaction in the epigastrium without clear imaging features of malignancy. Due to the size of the lesion and the patient’s primary disease, tumor recurrence could not be completely ruled out, and the patient underwent surgery. Histopathological analysis confirmed the diagnosis of steatonecrosis of the omentum.

Omental Infarction in a Child—Conservative Management as an Effective and Safe Strategy in Diagnosis and Treatment

Omental infarction (OI) is a rare disease occurring in children. Important risk factors include overweight and obesity. The clinical presentation is often non-specific, and the main symptom is acute abdominal pain. In addition, infarcted omentum may present with fever, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and dysuria. Due to the localisation of the pain, OI should be differentiated from acute appendicitis. The diagnosis of OI is sometimes made intraoperatively, during appendectomy for suspected acute appendicitis. Hence, it is important to state a correct preoperative diagnosis, which is commonly based on abdominal ultrasound and computed tomography. The treatment of OI is still inconclusive. Both conservative and surgical treatments are used. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The decision of which treatment to follow should be multifactorial and include the patient’s clinical condition at the time of admission, the progression or regression of symptoms during hospitalization and laboratory and imaging findings. We present a clinical case of a 9-year-old overweight girl with OI, whose diagnosis was based on imaging diagnostics and enabled conservative treatment with no complications. The case we have described confirms that the conservative treatment is an effective and safe therapy.