Cardiac arrest secondary to subclavian artery injury in blunt chest trauma: A lifesaving emergency surgery in COVID crises.

ABSTRACT

A 25-year-old male vehicle driver had a road traffic accident and sustained a blunt chest injury. His chest x-ray in the emergency department showed left hemithorax opacification. A chest drain Fr32 was inserted, and 1300ml of Blood drained out. While having a computed tomographic scan of the thorax scan, he had a cardiac arrest and after Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) he was transferred to our tertiary care hospital on a mechanical ventilator and massive ionotropic support (adrenaline and noradrenaline) with a blood pressure of 50/24 mmHg. We performed a lifesaving emergency thoracotomy in a supine position with all COVID precautions, as COVID status was not available before hospitalization. After the repair of the Subclavian artery patient recovered completely and was discharged for follow-up in outpatient.