Emergency thoracotomy for blunt thoracic trauma.

Abstract

The results of emergency department thoracotomy in our series were extremely poor compared with the results of other reports, mainly due to rapid deterioration of hemodynamic condition caused by severe cardiac injury. The outcome from emergency thoracotomy in the operating theatre was encouraging, due particularly to the patients' status being stable enough to be transferred to a fully equipped operating theatre. We emphasize the importance of emergency medicine education programmes on rapid diagnosis of traumatic injuries with early intervention, and adequate hemodynamic and respiratory support.