Study of 433 Operated Cases of Thoracic Trauma

Muharrem Çakmak, Mehmet Nail Kandemir

Patients with thoracic trauma constitute one third of all the trauma cases. Of traumatic patients, 20-25 % die because of thoracic trauma. Our aim was to compare our clinical experience and the results with the related literature. Four hundred thirty-three patients, who underwent surgical interventions due to thoracic trauma, were evaluated. The latest form of treatment applied were taken as the criteria for the quantitative detection of patients. Continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation, while categorical variables were explained as number and percentage. The significance of the analysis results was evaluated using Fisher's exact test. p values <0.05 were considered as significant. Penetrating injuries were found in 258 (59 %) of the patients, and blunt trauma was identified in 175 (41 %). Depending on the trauma, pneumothorax was discovered in 130 patients (30.02 %), hemothorax in 117 (27.02 %), hemopneumothorax in 61 (14.08 %), pulmonary contusion in 110 (45 %), pneumomediastinum in 14 (3.23 %), and pericardial tamponade in 1 patient (0.23 %). It was demonstrated that 385 of 433 patients examined in the study underwent tube thoracostomy, 41 were treated with thoracotomy, while 6 of them underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), and 1 underwent sternotomy. No correlation was observed between mortality, morbidity, and gender and type of trauma and location of trauma (p > 0.05). However, statistically significant correlation was found between mortaxlity, morbidity, and the presence of concomitant injuries, the duration between injury and admission being more than 1 h (p < 0.05). Urgent intervention, early diagnosis, and fast transport are vital for patients with thoracic injuries.