Abstract
Purpose: Thoracic injuries with raised incidence are especially seen at war. We reported our experience of Syrian refugees who were brought to hospital with thoracic trauma within one month. Methods: We evaluated the clinical records of 24 Syrian refugees (23 men,1 woman) retrospectively who treated in our thoracic surgery clinic in September 2012. All cases were transported to the emergency service by ambulance across the border. Results: Tube thoracostomy was applied to 17 of cases because of hemopneumothorax. We performed urgent thoracotomy for 8 of 24 cases. Five of 8 cases were taken to operation room without any radiological investigation whose had thoracic wall defect with open thorax and shock condition. Plate fixation of rib was done to one patient who had flail chest and massive hemothorax. Left lower lobectomy in 1 case, pulmonary non-anatomic wedge resection in 4 cases with linear staplers, pneumoraphy- tractotomy in 4 cases, diaphragma repair through thoracotomy in 2 cases and by abdominal route in 1 case, chest wall reconstruction with methyl meta acrylate mersilen mash in 3 cases, left internal mammary artery ligation in 1 case were performed. Intraoperative death was seen at one patient who had massive hemopneumothorax, massive abdominal bleeding and huge diaphragmatic rupture with shock condition. Twenty-three of 24 cases were discharged from hospital without any pulmonary sequela. Conclusion: High kinetic energy gunshot wounds cause much more tissue damage with thoracic wall involvement which require thoracotomy. We need more information about trauma surgery especially for thoracic surgery.
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