Transmission through descending pathways to lumbar motoneurons, although important for voluntary walking in humans and rats, has not been fully understood at the cellular level in contusion models. Major descending pathways innervating lumbar motoneurons include those at corticospinal tract (CST) and ventrolateral funiculus (VLF). We examined transmission and plasticity at synaptic pathways fro...

Myocardial contusion injury (MCI) is a complication of blunt thoracic trauma, which may occur at relatively low velocities. MCI may also occur from chest compressions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. We review the clinical pathology, diagnostic tools, and treatment for MCI.

Nonpenetrating trauma to the chest can result in cardiac damage that may be overlooked because of associated injuries and the lack of obvious thoracic injury. The clinical diagnosis of important cardiac damage in this setting is difficult. We evaluated noninvasive tests for detecting myocardial damage in 100 patients with severe, nonpenetrating chest trauma. The noninvasive tests included seria...

Aortic valve regurgitation is an uncommon consequence of closed chest injury. It is caused by damage to the valve apparatus (ruptured cusp) or when subadventitial rupture of the ascending aorta causes prolapse of a subjacent valve cusp. Aortic valve regurgitation was detected in 4 patients (2 men and 2 women, 30 to 65 years old) who had sustained multiple injuries in road accidents 1 week to 30...

INTRODUCTION Despite the high frequency of thoracic injuries secondary to traffic related accidents, the blunt cardiac valve rupture is extremely rare. METHOD Case report and review of the literature using PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. RESULT A 38 year old female patient, victim of car accident was admitted. On primary survey the patient was conscious, cooperative and hemodynamic and...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE MR imaging is the most comprehensive noninvasive means to assess structural changes in injured central nervous system (CNS) tissue in humans over time. The few published in vivo MR imaging studies of spinal cord injury in rodent models by using field strengths < or = 7T suffer from low spatial resolution, flow, and motion artifacts. The aim of this study was to assess the...

Most injuries to the chest wall with residual deformity do not result in long-term respiratory dysfunction unless they are associated with pulmonary contusion. Indications for operative fixation include flail chest, reduction of pain and disability, a chest wall deformity or defect, symptomatic nonunion, thoracotomy for other indications, and open fractures. Operative indications for chest wall...

The aim was to analyze the causes of sudden death in middle-aged and elderly men during manual snow removal. During snowy winter months in Zagreb, from January 2013 to January 2014, four males aged 52, 65, 72 and 81, died suddenly while manually removing snow. They were all autopsied. All of them have suffered from arterial hypertension and coronary heart disease, and one suffered from metaboli...

Nowadays, head injuries are becoming more frequent in children. The most common cause of head injuries in children is fall, and, in more severe injuries, traffic accident trauma. In traumatic brain injuries in infants and small children, the most common symptoms are paleness, somnolence and vomiting, the so called "pediatric contusion syndrome". After the first year of age, light head trauma oc...

BACKGROUND Chest wall implosion injuries secondary to side impact are unusual but devastating injuries. The purpose of this series is to describe the clinical entity, present a surgical technique to reduce and repair the thoracic cage deformity without thoracotomy, and report outcomes in nine patients. STUDY Institutional review board approved retrospective case series, surgical technique. ...