During the four-year period from 1950 to 1954, 528 patients were admitted to the Los Angeles County General Hospital with a diagnosis of possible abdominal trauma. One hundred fifty-one of these patients had penetrating gunshot or knife wounds of the abdomen, and they were operated upon shortly after admission. Two hundred fifty-one patients were not operated upon and, after clinical observation, x-rays, and laboratory studies, were dismissed, as there was no evidence of intra-abdominal injury. The remaining 126 cases were operated upon for intra-abdominal injury and form the subject of this paper. In nearly half of these patients the injuries were multiple, and the early diagnosis of intra-abdominal injury was very difficult to make. The presence of multiple fractures, head injuries, and lacerated wounds raised the problem of the priority of treatment of the various injuries. Many of these patients were first seen in consultation on the orthopedic and neurosurgical