Outcome of Chest Trauma Patients in One Year in Sohag University Hospital

The history of chest trauma is as old as that of man himself. One of the earliest writings about chest trauma is found in the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, written in 3000 bc.

Over the last century, there has been considerable reduction in the mortality of chest trauma owing to improved pre-operative care, availability of positive pressure ventilation, increasing availability of antibiotics, improvement of radiological techniques and improved lung toilets measures etc.

Chest trauma implies trauma to any or combination of different thoracic structures, which can be divided into 4 anatomical regions i.e. the chest wall, the pleural space, the lung parenchyma, and the mediastinum.

Trauma is one of the top ranking causes of accidental or unnatural deaths. Chest trauma is a significant source of morbidity and mortality worldwide. overall, it accounts for 25%-30% of all trauma related deaths and is implicated in an additional 25% of patients, who died from injuries.

In most cases, blunt chest trauma is by far the commonest and road traffic accidents account for 70%-80% of such injuries. Fire-arm injuries, falling from height, blast, stabs, and various acts of violence are the other causative mechanisms.