A Clinical Evaluation of 717 Chest Injuries

흉부외상 717례의 임상적 고찰

A Clinical analysis was performed on 717 cases of the chest trauma experienced at department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Soonchunhyang Chunan Hospital from Mar. 1985 to Jun. 1989. 1. The sex ratio was 2.89:1 with male predominance. The patients in 75 % of total cases was between 3rd to 5th decade. 2. The most common causes were traffic accident in non-penetrating thoracic injury and stab wound by knife in penetrating injury. 3. The hemothorax, pneumothorax and hemopneumothorax were observed in 306 cases[42.7 %]. 4. The left thorax was the preferred site of penetrating and non-penetrating thoracic injury. The rib fracture was prevalent between 4th to 8th rib. 5. The open thoracotomy was performed in 55 cases[7.7 %] 6. The overall mortality was 3.07 %[22 cases] and causes of death were hypovolemic shock, adult respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, renal failure and pneumonia.