Pattern of Cardiac Trauma in Sulaimani Province of Southern Kurdistan: 5 Years’ Experience

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiac injuries are one of the important causes of death in young population. With aggressive resuscitative therapy and emergency room thoracotomy, the salvage rate of these patients can reach 35%. In this case series the types of presentation, methods of resuscitation, surgical approaches, operative and postoperative outcomes are discussed. Patients and Methods: From January 2009 to January 2014 there were 3157 patients treated for thoracic injuries at Sulaimani university hospital, 14 patients had cardiac injuries. All admitted cases with central chest trauma were submitted to a thorough clinical examination, ECG and eFAST (extended Focused assessment with sonography for trauma) and/or transthoracic echocardiography. Results: Total of 14 cardiac injuries from 3157 causalities were identified, which is 0.44% of the total admissions. Male gender was predominant (85.7% vs. 14.28%) for females. Mechanism of injury was mostly penetrating (85.71%) among which stabs were majority (57.14%) while bullet and shrapnel each constituted (14.28%). Mean time of interval between the accident and our intervention was 2.96 hours. No diagnostic test was 100% specific and sensitive. Discussion: Cardiac injury regarded as a crucial injury because of its high fatality. It is reported that 10.3% of emergency surgical operations are thoracic type and about 1% of them are associated with cardiac injury. Although any penetrating injury to the thorax may injure the heart but those within the box are more suspicious. We conclude that cardiac trauma is a fatal injury but still if the facilities are available the mortality can be minimized.