Surgical management of penetrating thoracic trauma.

probably have occurred since man first raised a weapon against another of his kind. Three such cases were described in the Smith Papyrus written between 2500 and 3000 B.C.,1 and Homer recorded in the Iliad results of various wounds of the chest inflicted during the siege of Troy.2 As early as about 1267, Theodoric at least suspected certain basic principles of pulmonary physiology and wrote concerning chest wounds, “the stitches should be placed in accordance with the size of the wound so that natural heat cannot escape in any way nor the air outside be able to