Epidemiological pattern of blunt trauma chest in Western India

• Main Authors: Anita Kumari Gupta, Amit Kumar Sharma, Naresh Kumar Suthar, H R Girija, Vijay Verma, Satya Prakash Jindal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: Apollo Medicine
• Subjects: chest trauma; chest tube; hemothorax; pneumothorax; thoracotomy; trauma
• Online Access: http://www.apollomedicine.org/article.asp?issn=0976-0016;year=2020;volume=17;issue=2;spage=66;epage=69;aulast=Gupta

Introduction: Chest injuries constitute an important aspect of trauma. Despite high mortality rates, but the majority of patients with thoracic injuries can be managed by a simple intervention like tube thoracostomy. Aims and Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the epidemiological pattern of chest injury and assess the outcome at our institute. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective observational study done at a tertiary care center of north India from July 2015 to December 2016, including 200 patients. Results: Road traffic accident was the most common cause of chest trauma (61%) followed by fall from height (23%). We observed rib fracture in 78% of patients, surgical emphysema in 31%, hemopneumothorax in 31.5%, hemothorax in 25%, and pneumothorax in 8.5% patients. Twenty-four percent (48/200) patients were managed conservatively, whereas 72.5% (145/200) patients were managed by chest tube drainage. Only seven (3.5%) patients underwent surgical procedures for chest injury in terms of thoracotomy or laparotomy. The mortality rate in our study was 6.5%, whereas 9.5% of patients required ventilator support. Conclusion: In our study, most of the patients were managed conservatively or simply by chest tube drainage. The overall prognosis depends more on associated injuries and morbidity. Associated head injury is the major factor behind need of ventilator and intensive care unit support and led to death in the majority of patients.