Penetrating trauma to the heart: a relatively innocent injury.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to examine the mortality rate of penetrating cardiac trauma in a large urban hospital. METHODS This was a retrospective study over a period of 5 years and 5 months of all patients admitted alive with a stab or a gunshot cardiac injury. RESULTS There were 310 patients with a stab wound and 63 with a gunshot wound. The overall mortality rate was 19%. The mortality rates for the stab and the gunshot groups were 13% and 50.7%, respectively. In the 296 patients with a cardiac stab wound confined to a single chamber and with no other associated extracardiac injury the mortality rate was 8.5%. CONCLUSIONS An isolated cardiac stab wound is a relatively innocent injury in a patient at a hospital accustomed to managing penetrating trauma expeditiously.