During an eight-year period, 76 patients with penetrating wounds of the heart were treated at our institution. Among the 56 patients who survived, there were 16 instances of delayed sequelae in 14 patients, an incidence of 25 percent. Residual sequelae from penetrating cardiac wounds may not be initially evident or detected because of the urgency when tamponade or bleeding are present or becaus...

The immediate effects depend on the size, shape, type, velocity and track of the missile. A high velocity rifle or machine-gun bullet entering the chest through an intercostal space and making its way out through a posterior space may occasion, apart from the initial shock, little disability and with luck no complications. A small more slowly moving vulnerant may produce a punctured wound such ...

Experimental evidence indicates that the healing rate of avascular penetrating corneal wounds is delayed when compared with vascularized penetrating corneal wounds or with wounds of other vascularized tissues (Gasset and Dohlman, I968; Howes, Sooy, and Harvey, 1929). This is exemplified clinically by a substantial number of postoperative wound healing complications which may occur after penetra...

BACKGROUND This study was undertaken to determined the differences in injury patterns between soldiers equipped with modern body armor in an urban environment compared with the soldiers of the Vietnam War. METHODS From July 1998 to March 1999, data were collected for a retrospective analysis on all combat casualties sustained by United States military forces in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October ...

Despite concern over chemical, radiological and biological attacks, the majority of direct terrorist-related physical injury to date has been the result of direct trauma. While many terror-related injuries tend to be of greater severity than non-terror related injuries and are characterized by penetrating wounds and the consequences of explosions, there are often a large proportion of persons w...

BACKGROUND : Although there is no debate that patients with peritonitis or hemodynamic instability should undergo urgent laparotomy after penetrating injury to the abdomen, it is also clear that certain stable patients without peritonitis may be managed without operation. The practice of deciding which patients may not need surgery after penetrating abdominal wounds has been termed selective ma...

BACKGROUND Penetrating cardiac injuries have a rather high mortality and require a rapid diagnosis and emergency surgical intervention. The aim of this study was to present and discuss our experience with penetrating heart wounds. METHODS Sixteen patients with penetrating cardiac injury underwent surgical treatment at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery between 1985-2007. The patients ra...