Resuscitative thoracotomy is preferentially addressed to patients with penetrating thoracic injury and suffering from severe treatment-resistant hemodynamic instability, without pulse or in cardiopulmonary arrest for at most 15minutes. It is practicable in an emergency room, or ideally, in an operating theater. The procedure always begins with left anterolateral thoracotomy and can be prolonged through transversal bi-thoracotomy or, more rarely and according to the presumed origin of the hemorrhage, through median sternotomy.
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