Blunt injuries of chest: A medicolegal analysis.

ABSTRACT

Chest injuries are always a great challenge for medical professionals as two of the vital organs, which are present there, very often involved & damaged causing excessive bleeding and death. These injuries are usually caused by blunt forces or sharp penetrating weapons. Here in this paper 60 cases of chest injuries by blunt forces are studied for their epidemiological, medicolegal and clinico-pathological aspects. Most of them are adult/ middle aged male between 20-50years of age, hit or run over by heavy vehicles in road traffic accidents. Lungs are lacerated in almost all the cases and internal haemorrhage & shock is the prime cause of death. Heart, aorta & other organs were also involved in substantial number of cases. Though majority of them died within two hours, either on the spot or in the way to the hospital, an attempt is also made to correlate the prognosis & the nature of injuries.