Search

Hemorrhage is a major cause of death among trauma patients. Controlling the bleeding is essential but can be difficult when the source of bleeding remains unidentified. We present a 67-year-old healthy male with a hypovolemic shock after a suicide attempt by jumping from a height. Apart from a bilateral pneumothorax with multiple rib fractures, a femur fracture and spine fractures, computer tomography (CT) revealed a closed, degloving injury of the back, also known as a Morel-Lavallée lesion. Hemodynamic instability due to hemorrhage caused by a Morel-Lavallée lesion in the lumbar region is very rare and easily overlooked. This case demonstrates the importance of clinical signs of Morel-Lavallée, and illustrates the need for total body CTs to exclude other locations of bleeding and to detect contrast extravasation. This report also discusses the possible treatment options for Morel-Lavallée lesions., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: By the CPC-EM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. The authors disclosed none., (Copyright: © 2019 Claassen et al.)