J Cardiothorac Surg
July 2024
Background: Penetrating thoracic injuries have a significant risk of morbi-mortality. Despite the advancements in damage control methods, a subset of patients with severe pulmonary vascular lesions and bronchial injuries persists. In some of these cases, post-traumatic pneumonectomy is required, and perioperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support may be required due to right ventricular failure and respiratory failure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Late hemothorax is a rare complication of blunt chest trauma. The longest reported time interval between the traumatic event and the development of hemothorax is 44 days.
Case Presentation: An elderly patient with right-sided rib fractures from chest trauma, managed initially with closed thoracostomy, presented with a delayed hemothorax that occurred 60 days after initial management, necessitating conservative and then surgical intervention due to the patient's frail condition and associated complications.
A 47-year-old male patient was referred to a level 1 trauma center with refractory acute respiratory distress syndrome, bilateral lung contusions, and flail chest after initial management for injuries sustained 5 days prior from an 8-m fall from a tower crane. Surgical stabilization of the rib fractures was achieved under extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support, with successful decannulation 4 days after surgery. The patient was discharged after 42 days and following multidisciplinary interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Penetrating chest trauma that is associated with pulmonary injuries can trigger different sequelae, the most frequent being the presence of contusions or pulmonary lacerations that are accompanied by hemopneumothorax.
Materials And Methods: Description of a clinical case of interest and review of the literature on the topic.
Results: In this study, we present an unusual consequence of this type of trauma, a pulmonary infarction secondary to an extensive pulmonary venous thrombosis stemming from a firearm injury.