Penetrating Chest Injuries after Egyptian Revolution

Ahmed Mostafa El Saied* and Waleed Hassan Rizk

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mansoura University, Egypt`

^*Correspondance to: Ahmed Mostafa El Saied 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.2716

Abstract

rate than blunt trauma. It is more common in men due to their propensity to violence and the mechanism of injury is usually a gunshot wound or stab wound. Aim: To describe the prevalence of penetrating chest injuries cases after Egyptian revolution admitted to the Emergency Department University Hospital. Methods: The records were reviewed of 180 patients seen at our thoracic surgery hospital over a 7-year period. Results: The group comprised 162 male (90%) and 18 female (10%) patients, with a mean age of 23.0 years. Of those, 108 patients (60%) had left-sided penetrating injury, 63 patients (35%) had right-sided penetrating injury, and 9 patients (5%) had bilateral injury. The left -to-right injury ratio was 1.7:1. Stab wounds were the most frequent mode of injury, comprising 162 cases (90%); the remaining 18 patients (10%) suffered from gunshot wounds, comprising both homicidal and suicidal penetrating traumas. In terms of management, 117 patients (65%) were treated with only tube thoracostomy, 36 patients (20%) had conservative management, and 27 patients (15%) had thoracotomy and exploration. In the 18 gunshot wound patients, 6 (33.3%) had thoracotomy, whereas only 11 (6.8%) of the 162 stab-wound patients had exploration. Conclusion: In this study we emphasize that chest tube thoracostomy should remain by far the most common and appropriate method of treating penetrating injury to the thorax.

Keywords

Penetrating Thoracic Trauma; Chest Trauma; Tube Thoracostomy; Thoracotomy; Egyptian Revolution

Cite the article

El Saied AM, Rizk WH. Penetrating Chest Injuries after Egyptian Revolution. Clin Surg. 2020; 5: 2716..