Abstract

Purpose: Current guidelines on urgent thoracotomy of polytraumatized patients are based on data from perforating chest injuries. We aimed to identify predictive factors for urgent thoracotomy after chest-tube placement for blunt chest trauma in a civilian setting. Methods: Polytraumatized patients (Injury Severity Score ≥16) with blunt chest trauma, submitted to a level I trauma centre during a period of 12 years that received at least one chest tube were included. Trauma mechanism, chest-tube output, haemoglobin values, need for cellular blood products, coagulopathies, rib fracture pattern, thoracotomy, and mortality were retrospectively analysed. Results: 235 polytraumatized patients were included. Patients that received urgent thoracotomy (UT, n = 10) showed a higher mean chest-tube output within 24 h with a median (Mdn) of 3865 (IQR 2423–5156) mL compared to the group with no additional thoracic surgery (NT, n = 225) with Mdn 185 (IQR 50–463) mL (p < 0.001). The cut-off 24-h chest-tube output value for recommended thoracotomy was 1270 mL (ROC-Curve). UT showed an initial haemoglobin of Mdn 11.7 (IQR 9.2–14.3) g/dL and an INR value of Mdn 1.27 (IQR 1.11–1.69) as opposed to Mdn 12.3 (IQR 10–13.9) g/dL and Mdn 1.13 (IQR 1.05–1.34) in NT (haemoglobin: p = 0.786; INR: p = 0.215). There was an average number of 7.1(±3.4) rib fractures in UT and 6.7(±4.8) in NT (p = 0.649). Conclusions: Chest-tube output remains the single most important predictive factor for urgent thoracotomy also after blunt chest trauma. Patients with a chest-tube output of more than 1300 mL within 24 h after trauma should be considered for transfer to a level I trauma centre with standby thoracic surgery.

Highlights

  • The aim of this study is to evaluate if current guidelines for thoracotomy apply for blunt chest trauma and to analyze if other clinical values might be reliable predictive factors

  • 216 (91.9%) patients survived after initial emergency stabilization and 198 (84.3%) of them survived during acute hospital stay

  • There was no significant difference in age, sex, injury severity score (ISS) and abbreviated injury scale (AIS) (Table 1)

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Summary

Introduction

Trauma is the leading cause of mortality and disability amongst young adults [1]. While neurologic injury is responsible for 60% of fatalities, exsanguination after blunt trauma has been described as major cause of preventable deaths [2,3]. Chest trauma ranks amongst the most important injuries in polytraumatized patients, with an incidence of. Risk factors for poor outcome include a high injury severity score (ISS), multiple rib fractures, age over 65 years and injuries to lungs, heart or thoracic vessels [6,7]. Scoring systems such as the Thoracic Trauma Severity

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