Abstract
Chest trauma is a commonly encountered surgical emergency, constitutes about 10% of the total trauma, however 25% of fatalities are because of chest trauma. The aims of this study is to evaluate and document the causes modes of presentation, dignosis and modalities of treatment for chest trauma. Prospetive study was done at Govt. Medical College (GMC) Jammu for a period of one year on cases of chest trauma. A total number of 2571 patients were admitted in Surgery department with poly trauma, 240 (9.3%) had chest injuries. Majority (78.7%) were males, with a mean age of 34.4 years. The mean hospital stay was 6.4 days and majority cases reached hospital with in 4 hours after injury. 81.7% cases had blunt trauma chest with Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) being the mode of injury and gunshot injury was the commonest among penetratting chest trauma victims. Clinical presentation and physical examination was sufficient for the dignosis, although some investigations, especially chest x-rays and thoracic Computed Tomographic (CT) scans were necessary in most of cases. Only 16 (8.8%) patients required surgery and rest 91.2% managed on conservative line only. Rib fracture was the commonest injury (60%) followed by hemopneumothorax (51.7%), surgical emphysema (37.9), lung contusion (10.4%), flail chest (6.2%) etc. Associated injuries were seen in 117 (48.8%), with head injury the commonest one. Overall motality rate was 12%, which was higher in blunt chest trauma as compared to penetrating injuries. All these patients were managed by a protocol, which was standardized by postgraduate department of surgery of this institution. The evaluation of thoracic injuries is important aspect of the total assessment of a severely injured patient, the incidence as high as 10%. Both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures go hand in hand most thoracic injuries can be treated adequately by intercostal tube drainage. Operative intervention has been found necessary in 6.75 of cases only
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