Introduction
Bicycle handle bar injury occurs when the handlebar of the bicycle
strikes to cause an impact on the body. This mechanism of injury is
responsible for a significant number of thoraco-abdominal injuries in
children with more than a third of them requiring surgical
intervention.1 The most common among them involves
intra-abdominal organ injuries, traumatic abdominal wall
hernias and bladder rupture.2–4 However,
retroperitoneal hematoma has rarely been reported in bicycle handle bar
injury.5 Bleeding into the space behind the peritoneal
cavity, referred to as retroperitoneal hematoma, is an obscure and under
diagnosed condition due to the late manifestation of signs and symptoms
until significant blood loss has occurred.6 Here, we
present a case of 12 years old boy brought to the emergency department
with the alleged history of bicycle handle bar injury who underwent
emergency exploratory laparotomy that revealed massive retroperitoneal
hematoma secondary to mesenteric/ vascular injury with intra-peritoneal
extent.