BACKGROUND Survival after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) using standard vasopressor therapy is disappointing. Vasopressin is a potent vasopressor that could become a useful therapeutic alternative in the treatment of cardiac arrest. AIMS The aim of this prehospital prospective cohort study was to assess the influence of treatment with vasopressin and hydroxyethyl starch solution (HHS) on...

BACKGROUND Blunt thoracic trauma can rarely result in coronary artery injury. Blunt trauma can result in occlusion of any of the coronary arteries or can lead to its rupture and bleeding. Traumatic coronary artery occlusion can lead to myocardial infarction, while its rupture and bleeding can result in hemopericardium and cardiac tamponade, and can be rapidly fatal. Survival after coronary arte...

INTRODUCTION The Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma examination is an invaluable tool in the initial assessment of any injured patient. Although highly sensitive and accurate for identifying hemoperitoneum, occasional false negative results do occur in select scenarios. We present a previously unreported case of survival following blunt cardiac rupture with associated negative perica...

Two cases of blunt chest trauma caused by a baseball are reported, including one death. At least one of these was in consequence of cardiac concussion or commotio cordis, an entity not described in teh pediatric literature. Concussion of the heart is a functional injury, in contrast to cardiac contusion or cardiac rupture, which pertains to structural injury. However, a cardiac concussion appea...

INTRODUCTION Heart valve injury following blunt chest trauma of car accidents is increasing. Although aortic valve involvement is rare, however, in survivors of blunt cardiac trauma it is the most commonly involved valve and the most frequent valve lesion is isolated injury of the noncoronary cusp of aortic valve. CASE PRESENTATION A 31-year-old man with a history of car accident (five months...

Carlson, Deborah L., D. Jean White, David L. Maass, Robin C. Nguyen, Brett Giroir, and Jureta W. Horton. I B overexpression in cardiomyocytes prevents NFB translocation and provides cardioprotection in trauma. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 284: H804–H814, 2003; 10.1152/ ajpheart.00394.2001.—This study examined the effects of either I B overexpression (transgenic mice) or N-acetylleucinyl-leuc...

Penetrating cardiac trauma is rarely seen but when present there is a short time lag to keep the patients alive. Cardiac gunshot injuries are exceptional and it occurs mostly during interpersonal disagreements casualties or a mistakenly fired gun nowadays. Here we present a case of cardiac gunshot injury from the war of Kobani, Syria. The patient was mistakenly diagnosed to have a sole bullet i...

BACKGROUND Blunt Traumatic Pericardial Rupture (BTPR) with resulting cardiac herniation following chest trauma is an unusual and often fatal condition. Although there has been a multitude of case reports of this condition in past literature, the recurring theme is that of a missed injury. Its occurrence in severe blunt trauma is in the order of 0.4%. It is an injury that frequently results in p...

Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) has been usually diagnosed as a complication secondary to cardiac, hepatic, and malignant etiologies, but it rarely described in the setting of blunt abdominal trauma. This case depicts an older male who presented emergency department with progressive ascites lower extremity edema within two weeks after motor vehicle accident (MVA). Ascitic fluid analysis indicated ...

BACKGROUND In the past three decades, there has been a significant clinical shift in the performance of resuscitative thoracotomy (RT), from a nearly obligatory procedure before declaring any trauma patient deceased to a more selective application of RT. We have sought to formulate an evidence-based guideline for the current indications for RT after injury in the patient. METHODS The Western ...