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Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

DOI

10.3906/sag-1203-56

Abstract

To investigate the patterns of penetrating thoracic injuries and techniques used in their management, and to contribute further data on the knowledge of penetrating thoracic trauma. Materials and methods: The records were reviewed of 99 patients seen at our thoracic surgery hospital over a 4-year period. Results: The group comprised 90 male (90.9%) and 9 female (9.1%) patients, with a mean age of 29.0 years. Of these patients, 62 (62.6%) had left-sided, 33 (33.3%) had right-sided, and 4 (4%) had bilateral penetrating injury. Stab wounds comprised 89 cases (89.9%) and the remaining 10 patients (10.1%) suffered gunshot wounds. Intercostal tube thoracostomy was the only therapy required in 68 patients (68.7%), whereas 21 patients (21.2%) had conservative management and only 10 patients (10.1%) underwent thoracotomy and exploration. Mean hospitalization period was 4.5 days in the tube thoracostomy group whereas median hospitalization duration in the exploration group was 11 days. Conclusion: In this study we emphasize that chest tube thoracostomy should remain by far the most common and appropriate method of treating penetrating injury to the thorax.

Keywords

Penetrating thoracic trauma, chest trauma, tube thoracostomy, thoracotomy

First Page

1082

Last Page

1085

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