Blunt chest wall trauma: A review

Abstract

Blunt chest wall trauma accounts for a large proportion of all trauma presentations to the Emergency Departments in the United Kingdom and has a high reported incidence of morbidity and mortality. The difficulty in the assessment and management of this patient group arises from the possibility that the patient may develop potentially life-threatening complications up to approximately 72 h post-injury, even in patients who have sustained what is initially considered a minor injury. Limited consensus currently exists in the literature regarding optimal assessment or management strategies for this patient group. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of current research investigating the optimal assessment and management strategies for the blunt chest wall trauma patient.