Analysis of Risk Factors for Death After Blunt Traumatic Rupture of the Thoracic Aorta

During the study period of 14 years (January 1990 to December 2003), all consecutive cases with traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta being reported in the greater area of Zurich with about one million inhabitants were included in the present study. Related to the final outcome, patient data were drawn either from medical reports from the University Hospital of Zurich, which is a tertiary care teaching hospital and level I trauma center for the eastern part of Switzerland, or from autopsy reports from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Zurich, respectively. The latter group includes all patients, who died on the scene, in a assigning primary care hospital or on the way to the University Hospital of Zurich. In Switzerland, the criteria used for performing a full autopsy after a blunt traumatic death include all cases in which the events leading to the death are unclear or in which the cause of death is the result of suicide or extrinsic harm. Both, deaths at the scene and in-hospital deaths were included in the study.