Korean J Leg Med Search

CLOSE


Korean Journal of Legal Medicine 1980;4(1):78-83.
Complications in Chest Trauma
Hyoung-Mook Kim
Dept. of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea
Abstract
Annually there is increasing number of chest trauma, mostly due to traffic accident, recently. Most victims are young and productive age group between 20 to 50 years of age, and about one fourth are due entirely to thoracic trauma, while in another half chest involvement is a major factor. 373 cases of chest trauma admitted at the department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, Korea University Hospital for 14 years from 1965 to 1979 were analysed clinically, and overall complications were studied. Knife and glass injuries occupied 80% of penetrating injury, and traffic accident and fall down 86% of non-penetrating injury. Most common method of management in chest trauma was tube thoracostomy and thoracentesis in 45% of all cases, and 11% of all chest trauma cases were treated with open thoracotomy. According to the cases analysed in this study, complication rate was (60/373 cases) including pneumonitis, lobar atelectasis, empyema and sepsis in early period and late residuals with fibrothorax and respiratory insufficiency(Table 5). Mortality rate in chest trauma was 5.6% of all cases, -mostly due to thoracic origin (62%), and cause of death was displayed in Table 6. More aggressive management and intensive care may reduce the complications and mortality rate with minimal period of morbidity.


ABOUT
ARTICLE CATEGORY

Browse all articles >

BROWSE ARTICLES
EDITORIAL POLICY
FOR CONTRIBUTORS
Editorial Office
Institute of Forensic Medicine and Department of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine
103 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03080, Korea
Tel: +82-2-740-8360    Fax: +82-2-902-8340    E-mail: yoosh@snu.ac.kr                

Copyright © 2024 by The Korean Society for Legal Medicine.

Developed in M2PI

Close layer
prev next