BACKGROUND Mortality from thoracic injuries has declined significantly from 63% in the Civil War to 3% in Vietnam. We reviewed the injury patterns, procedures, blood products, and mortality of US soldiers sustaining a thoracic injury during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). METHODS Data on US soldiers with a thoracic injury during OEF/OIF from January 2003 to May 2011 wa...

INTRODUCTION We report a case of deliberate self-harm in which three three-inch nails were fired from a nail gun resulting in mandibular fixation and two penetrating injuries to the right cardiac ventricle. This combination of high-velocity penetrating injury has not been previously described. CASE PRESENTATION A 69-year-old Caucasian man with a medical history of chronic depression was broug...

OBJECTIVES Supine anteroposterior (AP) chest radiographs in patients with blunt trauma have poor sensitivity for the identification of pneumothorax. Ultrasound (US) has been proposed as an alternative screening test for pneumothorax in this population. The authors conducted an evidence-based review of the medical literature to compare sensitivity of bedside US and AP chest radiographs in identi...

OBJECTIVES Venoarterial extracorporeal life support (VA-ECLS) is an effective support of acute hemodynamic collapse caused by miscellaneous diseases. However, using VA-ECLS for post-traumatic shock is controversial and may induce a disastrous hemorrhage. To investigate the feasibility of using VA-ECLS to treat post-traumatic shock or cardiac arrest (CA), a single-center experience of VA-ECLS in...

lung contusion is an entity involving injury to the alveolar capillaries, without any tear or cut in the lung tissue. this results in accumulation of blood and other fluids within the lung tissue. the excess fluid interferes with gas exchange leading to hypoxia. the pathophysiology of lung contusion includes ventilation/perfusion mismatching, increased intrapulmonary shunting, increased lung wa...

BACKGROUND Patients with penetrating injuries are known to have worse outcomes than those with blunt trauma. We hypothesize that within each injury mechanism there should be no outcome difference between insured and uninsured patients. METHODS The National Trauma Data Bank version 7 was analyzed. Patients aged 65 years and older and burn patients were excluded. The insurance status was catego...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of antibiotics in reducing the infectious complications following closed tube thoracostomy for isolated chest trauma. DESIGN Double-blind, randomized clinical trial. SETTING Medical school affiliated large urban teaching hospital and trauma center. PATIENTS One hundred nineteen of 159 patients over 18 years old presenting to the emergency...