Profile of chest injuries in a tertiary care centre

ABSTRACT

Background: Trauma is a major cause of mortality worldwide. This study is aimed at the patterns of chest trauma, their presentation and the outcome of management.Methods: A prospective study of trauma patients admitted to a tertiary care centre was carried out the clinical history, physical examination and outcome of management recorded in a predesigned proforma were analysed with SPSS 15 and the patients were followed up in the surgical department.Results: A total of 638 patients were admitted. 57 patents were identified with chest trauma, 43 (75%) were males and 14 (24.56%) were females. The age range was from 3-78 years and the most affected age was in the range of 20 to 39 years. Blunt injury constituted 82.4% while road traffic accident was responsible for 70.1%. The average time taken between accident and admission was 11 hours 12 minutes while the average duration of hospital stay was 11 days. The injury pattern mainly included rib fracture and hemopneumothorax. The mortality rate was 1.75%.Conclusions: Most patients arriving at the hospital survived, requiring general resuscitation or simple tube thoracostomy with few complications. Mortalities from trauma and cause of death at the site of accident are often not accounted for due to non-presentation to the hospital and lack of autopsy for those who present.