CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND RADIOLOGICAL FINDINGS OF PENETRATING CHEST TRAUMA; A CROSS SECTIONAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Mohd Altaf Wani, Showkat Hussain Tali*, Mohd Ashraf Bhat, Ashiq Hussain Naqshbandi

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Thoracic injuries account for almost one quarter of deaths due to trauma and contribute to one quarter to one half of the remaining deaths. Timely recognition of serious injuries is expected to make a huge difference in caring of such patients. Material and Methods: Patients of all ages with penetrating chest trauma were enrolled in the study. Clinical features at the time of admission and radiological findings (when investigations performed as needed) were recorded on a predesigned proforma. Observations and Results: Most common clinical features and clinic-radiological findings were dyspnea with chest pain (41.6%), shock with dyspnea (28%), heamopneumothorax (40.8%) and shock with heamopneumothorax (28.8%). Abnormal radiological findings were predominantly on left side of the chest. Conclusion: Most common clinical feature in the penetrating chest trauma is dyspnea with chest pain and the most common clinic-radiological finding is heamo-pneumothorax.

Keywords: Penetrating injury, chest trauma, clinical features, radiological findings.