The treatment of trauma to the heart has been written about since 3000 BC and had an inauspicious beginning. Until the late 19th century, the commonly held belief agreed with Boerhaave’s sentiments that, “all penetrating cardiac trauma is fatal.” Theodore Billroth warned, “The surgeon who should attempt to suture a wound of the heart would lose the respect of his colleagues.” Paget believed tha...

BACKGROUND Little information on the factors influencing intraoperative cardiac arrest and its outcomes in trauma patients is available. This survey evaluated the associated factors and outcomes of intraoperative cardiac arrest in trauma patients in a Brazilian teaching hospital between 1996 and 2009. METHODS Cardiac arrest during anesthesia in trauma patients was identified from an anesthesi...

Care by Gräsner and colleagues that strongly emphasizes the importance of encouraging attempts at cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in cardiac arrest caused by severe trauma [1]. Despite the interesting content, in our opinion the results presented by Gräsner and colleagues suff er by being derived from databases designed for diff erent purposes (Cardiac Arrest Registry and Trauma Registry). ...

INTRODUCTION Cardiac arrest following trauma occurs infrequently compared with cardiac aetiology. Within the German Resuscitation Registry a traumatic cause is documented in about 3% of cardiac arrest patients. Regarding the national Trauma Registry, only a few of these trauma patients with cardiac arrest survive. The aim of the present study was to analyze the outcome of cardiopulmonary resusc...

BACKGROUND Blunt cardiac injury is a rare trauma entity. Here, we sought to evaluate the relevance and prognostic significance of blunt cardiac injury in severely injured patients. METHODS In a retrospective multicentre study, using data collected from 47,580 patients enrolled to TraumaRegister DGU (1993-2009), characteristics of trauma, prehospital / hospital trauma management, and outcome a...

BACKGROUND Canadian trauma units have relatively little experience with major cardiac trauma (disruption of a cardiac chamber) so injury outcome may not be comparable to that reported from other countries. We compared our outcomes to those of other centers. METHODS Records of patients suffering major cardiac trauma over a nine-year period were reviewed. Factors predictive of outcome were anal...

BACKGROUND We performed a retrospective case-control study to assess the values of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in a large number of patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) with different types of trauma. METHODS The study population consisted of all patients aged 18 years or older admitted to the local ED with all types of traumas over a 1-year period. Results of cTnI were compared w...

OBJECTIVE Severe blunt chest trauma in humans is associated with high mortality rates. Whereas lung tissue damage and lung inflammation after blunt chest trauma have extensively been investigated, the traumatic and posttraumatic effects on the heart remain poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to define cardiac injury patterns in an experimental blunt chest trauma model in...

introduction although a few patients will survive after penetrating cardiac injuries, some of them may have unnoticeable intracardiac injuries. the combination of aorto-right ventricular fistula with aortic valve injury is rare. case presentation a 19 year-old man referred with an aorto-right ventricular fistula accompanied with aortic regurgitation and delayed tamponade following a stab in the...