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Chapter 14 - Cardiac Trauma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2019

By
Brit Long
Edited by
Alex Koyfman  and
Brit Long
Alex Koyfman
Affiliation:
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Brit Long
Affiliation:
San Antonio Military Medical Center
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Summary

Cardiac trauma is a critical injury, with penetrating cardiothoracic injury accounting for up to a third of traumatic deaths.1–4 These injuries often involve the heart or great vessels and include traumatic insertion of a foreign body, including invasive iatrogenic injury.1–8 Blunt cardiac trauma occurs in a wide range of patients, with 8–71% of patients with cardiothoracic trauma demonstrating signs of cardiac injury.1,2,8 Blunt cardiac injury encompasses all types of injury associated with blunt thoracic trauma to the heart.8–13 Up to 20% of deaths from motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) are due to this type of injury. Patients with thoracic great vessel injury due to penetrating injury have a high mortality rate (over 90% die at the scene),14,15 and blunt injury to the thoracic vessels is commonly due to motor vehicle accident.12,13,16,17 These injuries can result in chest, upper abdominal, back, arm/shoulder, or lower neck pain, as well as hemodynamic instability, nausea/vomiting, and shortness of breath.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Emergency Medicine Trauma Handbook , pp. 193 - 212
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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