Abstract
Penetrating injuries to anterior chest may result in life-threatening complications such as massive haemothorax, as a result of injury to the internal mammary artery. Isolated internal mammary injury is a very rare cause of massive haemothorax and associated with high mortality. We are presenting this 32-year-old gentleman who sustained a thoracic stab wound and had an emergency right anterior mini-thoracotomy by extending the stab wound rather than standard thoracotomy or sternotomy. This case of isolated penetrating IMA injury managed with mini-thoracotomy is the only documented case so far. We are publishing this case report with patient’s both written and informed consent and institutional approval. This potentially life-threating injury can be managed by mini-thoracotomy with enhanced recovery; however, it is case specific and needs proper judgement.
Highlights
Literature ReviewIsolated injury to internal mammary artery is rarely reported in literature
Isolated internal mammary injury is a very rare cause of massive haemothorax and associated with high mortality. We are presenting this 32-year-old gentleman who sustained a thoracic stab wound and had an emergency right anterior mini-thoracotomy by extending the stab wound rather than standard thoracotomy or sternotomy. This case of isolated penetrating Internal Mammary Artery (IMA) injury managed with mini-thoracotomy is the only documented case so far
We are publishing this case report with patient’s both written and informed consent and institutional approval. This potentially life-threating injury can be managed by mini-thoracotomy with enhanced recovery; it is case specific and needs proper judgement
Summary
Isolated injury to internal mammary artery is rarely reported in literature It can be a consequence of penetrating or blunt trauma, both of infrequent in occurrence but still with serious outcome. Massive tension haemothorax resulting from penetrating internal mammary artery injury, managed with anterior mini-thoracotomy with uneventful recovery, as in our case, has not been reported yet. The lone blunt injury patient presented with delayed pericardial tamponade and was hemodynamically stable with no massive haemothorax and underwent median sternotomy. Our patient presented in a haemo-dynamically unstable condition with single stab wound in the chest with massive tension haemothorax with early external cardiac tamponade. He underwent anterior mini-thoracotomy via wound exploration with ligation of IMA followed by an excellent full recovery
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
