Portal vein injury.

With the increasing number of traumatic injuries being seen in emergency departments, physicians must be aware of the less common and less obvious types of serious injury. Portal vein injury is serious (death rate 50%) and may be diagnosed only at laparotomy. Fortunately this injury is rare. Its management can be difficult, but an awareness of the possible methods of treatment could be life-saving. The authors report their experience with this injury and survey the literature on the subject.