Aikat Shamik, Lundergan Conor F, Adkins Mark S, Lewis Jannet F
George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2003 Oct;16(10):1085-7. doi: 10.1016/S0894-7317(03)00419-X.
We report a case of posttraumatic left ventricular outflow tract aneurysm in a patient who had a stab injury to the chest requiring emergency operation 40 years previously. After apparent decades without symptoms, the patient presented with exertional dyspnea. Clinical and echocardiographic assessment revealed aortic regurgitation and left ventricular outflow tract aneurysm. Injuries to the chest wall that penetrate the heart and great vessels are life-threatening and require emergency operative intervention. However, these injuries rarely, as in this case, result in chronic cardiac aneurysm and aortic valvular incompetence.
