Trauma represents the leading cause of death in young adults, and traumatic lesions of the heart and great vessels carry an extremely high mortality, which is partially due to a delayed recognition and treatment of life-threatening conditions. We describe the pathophysiology and presentation of the most common traumatic lesions of the heart and intrathoracic great vessels, and underline the paramount role of transesophageal echocardiography both in the diagnostic and in the operative phases of chest trauma management. Particular emphasis should be placed on the importance of echocardiography in the immediate evaluation of the unstable trauma patient to rule in or out an intrathoracic cause for the patient's instability
Sangalli, F., Galbiati, L., Fumagalli, R. (2012). Chest trauma. In Echocardiography for Intensivists (pp. 333-344). Springer-Verlag Italia s.r.l. [10.1007/978-88-470-2583-7_37].
Chest trauma
Sangalli, Fabio;GALBIATI, LUCIA;Fumagalli, Roberto
2012
Abstract
Trauma represents the leading cause of death in young adults, and traumatic lesions of the heart and great vessels carry an extremely high mortality, which is partially due to a delayed recognition and treatment of life-threatening conditions. We describe the pathophysiology and presentation of the most common traumatic lesions of the heart and intrathoracic great vessels, and underline the paramount role of transesophageal echocardiography both in the diagnostic and in the operative phases of chest trauma management. Particular emphasis should be placed on the importance of echocardiography in the immediate evaluation of the unstable trauma patient to rule in or out an intrathoracic cause for the patient's instabilityI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.