• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.760-765
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• 1989

Cardiac injury remains one of the most spectacular injuries which the present day cardiac surgeon is called upon to treat. Eight consecutive patients with penetrating or blunt injury to the heart underwent operation at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Masan Koryo General Hospital from April 22 88 to April 6 89. l. Among the 8 cases of cardiac injured patients, 7 cases were penetrating injury [stab injury] and one case was blunt injury [traffic accident]. 2. The site of cardiac injury was LV mainly and the next RV, SVC-RA junction in order. 3. The all patients were admitted to our hospital via ER and most of cases, CVP was elevated above 15 cmH2O and 7 of 8 cases were shock state. 4. In 6 of 8 cases revealed cardiomegaly in simple chest X * ray. 5. 7 cases were operated through the median sternotomy, 1 case the right anterolateral thoracotomy. 6. Associated injuries in penetrating cardiac injury were hemothorax, pneumothorax, sternal fracture, lung laceration, LAD transaction in blunt injury, hemoperitoneum.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.715-722
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• 1984

From 1978 to April 30 84 thirteen cases of cardiac injured patients were operated under general anesthesia at Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Chonnam National University. These patients were divided Into two groups according to their cause of trauma: Group 1, penetrating cardiac injury and Group II, blunt cardiac injury. 1.In 7 cases of Group 1, 6 cases were stab wound and one case was gunshot wound, and among 6 cases of Group II, 3 cases traffic accident, 2 cases pedestrian, 1 case agrimotor accident. 2.The sites of cardiac injury in penetrating trauma were right ventricle mainly and the next left ventricle and in blunt trauma right ventricle, myocardial contusion, right atrium, and inferior vena cava in order. 3.In most of cases central venous pressure was elevated above 15 cmH2O and in 5 of 13 cases revealed cardiomegaly in simple chest X-ray. 4.The relationship between the condition on arrival and the time to operation is not significant. 5.Associated injuries in penetrating cardiac trauma were hemothorax, pneumothorax, laceration of lung and in blunt trauma hemothorax, sternal fracture, rib fracture and pneumothorax in order. 6.One case of gunshot injury died after operation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 1992

From March 1986 to March 1991, 29 patients were operated due to cardiac tamponade at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Masan Koryo General Hospital. Among them, 19cases were traumatic origin and 10 were Non traumatic origin. A] Traumatic cardiac tamponade Out of 19 cases, 12 cases were resulted from penetrating injury and 7 cases from trauma. Average time interval from arrival to operation was 91 minutes[15min.~8.5hr.] in penetrating injury group. On the other hand, average time of in cases of blunt trauma was more than 3hours because of the difficulties in diagnosis. Four deaths occured in 19 cases [mortality rate: 21.1%] 3 in blunt trauma group[42.9%] and 1 in penetrating group[8.3%]. In view of our experience, the prognosis was closely correlated with injury mode, initial vital sign and mental status. There was no close correlation between prognosis and cardiac injury site. B] Non traumatic cardiac tamponade The etiologies were malignancy[4], non-spesific pericarditis[3], tuberculosis[1], pyogenic[1] and cardiomyopathy[1]. All of the cases in which performed tube pericardiostomy were the cases that showed no response to conservative treatment and repeat per-icardiocentesis. There was one posoperative death.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.929-935
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• 1990

Violence in our society, combined with improving transport system, resulted in increased numbers of patients with cardiac wounds reaching the hospital alive. Most patients with penetrating cardiac injury, rather than blunt injury, present with a syndrome of either hemorrhagic shock or cardiac tamponade. And they should be operated upon as soon as possible. Often the atrioventricular valves and other important cardiac structures are also damaged by the penetrating instruments or missile. Both intracardiac communications and atrioventricular fistulas may result in significant left-to-right shunts accompanied by congestive heart failure, necessitating surgical correction. Usually, retained cardiac foreign bodies, which are almost always bullets or fragments of missiles, may lie within a cardiac chamber or in the myocardium. Emboli of bullets or other missiles from distant sites to the right side of the heart are numerous enough to require attention. Recently we experienced a case with intracardiac foreign body due to penetrating cardiac injury. A 19 year-old man was admitted to our hospital due to penetrating anterior chest wound by iron segment. The roentgenogram of the chest revealed a radio-opaque metallic shadow in left lower chest around the cardiac apex, mild blunting of left costophrenic space, but no cardiomegaly. During operation the foreign body was noted to be present in the cardiac chamber by the portable C-arm fluoroscopy. But during the manipulation it moved into left inferior pulmonary vein from left ventricle by way of left atrium. So we could manage to remove it from left inferior pulmonary vein by direct approach to the vein. It was iron segment, sized 0.lcm x0.6cmx0.5cm, with sharp margins. The patient had an uneventful postoperative recovery except for chylopericardium and was discharged.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-23
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• 2017

Penetrating cardiac injury caused by nail gun is an uncommon life-threatening condition characterized by a rapidly severe hemodynamic status compromise. We report non-contrast-enhanced CT findings of a right ventricle myocardium injury leading to a fluid collection in the pericardial space with the same attenuation as blood. The CT findings well depicted the pathological feature of a significant cardiac injury and may be helpful for the surgical management.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.483-485
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• 1994

Recently, we experienced one case of penetrating cardiac injury patient by the knife.This patient was treated by emergency operation through left anterolateral thoracotomy under local anesthesia at emergency room. But, the patient was brought about the brain death inspite of normalized function of heart and lung. Now we have a conclusion that was able to recover of heart and lung functions by doctor`s exactly judgement and practice, at least.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.253-257
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• 2023

A century ago, cardiac injuries usually resulted in death. However, despite all the advances in medicine, these injuries still have high mortality and morbidity rates. In the present case, we describe a patient with a bullet injury to the right ventricle who survived at our hospital despite the limitations of our center with regard to modalities and equipment. A 30-year-old man was brought to our emergency department with a bullet wound to his left flank. He was hemodynamically unstable. After only 8 minutes in the hospital and without further investigations he was rushed to the operating room. During laparotomy, a clot was visible in the left diaphragm, which dislodged and caused extensive bleeding. The decision was made to perform a sternotomy in the absence of a sternal saw. An oblique 8-cm injury to the right ventricle was discovered following rapid exploration. It was repaired without the need for cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. After a few days in the hospital, the patient was discharged home. In the event of a penetrating cardiac injury, rapid decision-making is crucial for survival. Whenever possible, the patient should be transferred to the operating room, as emergency department thoracotomies are associated with a high mortality rate.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.166-172
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• 2017

Purpose: Thoracic traumas represent 10-15% of all traumas and are responsible for 25% of all trauma mortalities. Traumatic cardiac injury (TCI) is one of the major causes of death in trauma patients, rarely present in living patients who are transferred to the hospital. TCI is a challenge for trauma surgeons as it provides a short therapeutic window and the management is often dictated by the underlying mechanism and hemodynamic status. This study is to describe our experiences about emergency cardiac surgery in TCI. Methods: This is a retrospective clinical analysis of patients who had undergone emergency cardiac surgery in our trauma center from January 2014 to December 2016. Demographics, physiologic data, mechanism of injuries, the timing of surgical interventions, surgical approaches and outcomes were reviewed. Results: The number of trauma patients who arrived at our hospital during the study period was 9,501. Among them, 884 had chest injuries, 434 patients were evaluated to have over 3 abbreviated injury scale (AIS) about the chest. Cardiac surgeries were performed in 18 patients, and 13 (72.2%) of them were male. The median age was 47.0 years (quartiles 35.0, 55.3). Eleven patients (61.1%) had penetrating traumas. Prehospital cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR) were performed in 4 patients (22.2%). All of them had undergone emergency department thoracotomy (EDT), and they were transferred to the operating room for definitive repair of the cardiac injury, but all of them expired in the intensive care unit. Most commonly performed surgical incision was median sternotomy (n=13, 72.2%). The majority site of injury was right ventricle (n=11, 61.1%). The mortality rate was 22.2% (n=4). Conclusions: This study suggests that penetrating cardiac injuries are more often than blunt cardiac injury in TCI, and the majority site of injury is right ventricle. Also, it suggests prehospital CPR and EDT are significantly responsible for high mortality in TCI.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.456-459
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• 2023

Penetrating chest trauma may result in significant intracardiac injury. A traumatic ventricular septal defect is a rare complication that requires surgical management, particularly if heart failure ensues. We report a case of delayed repair of an outlet-type ventricular septal defect and perforation of the aortic and pulmonary valve leaflets following a stab wound. This report highlights diagnostic and surgical considerations and also presents an opportunity to review the conotruncal anatomy, which may be relatively unfamiliar to many adult cardiac surgeons.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.616-624
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• 1991

Recently, cardiac injury due to blunt thoracic trauma appears to be increasing in frequency. The rising incidence of this mishap may relate to the absolute increase in automobile accidents as well as to more universal recognition that cardiac damage may have been sustained. We have experienced a rare case of ventricular septal defect caused by non-penetrating thoracic trauma. Of further interest is the history of chest trauma, clearly resulting in rupture of the chordae tendineae of the tricuspid valve successfully treated by operation-re-placement with two, 6 - 0, double-armed, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene sutures-2 months later. The unique combination of ventricular septal defect and rupture of the chordae tendineae of the tricuspid valve secondary to non-penetrating thoracic trauma is presented below to emphasize another variety of cardiac injury.