[Algorithms for procedures in thoracic trauma].

The study includes 1127 injured with thoracic trauma, 23 percent of them with polytrauma. The worse thoracic trauma were these with formed flail chest with pleural and lung complications, accompanied by severe disfunction in circulation and biomechanics of breathing. The application of minimal surgical procedures like pleural punctures and drainage of pleural cavities with aspiration achieved good results. Thoracotomy was performed on clear indications (unstoppable bleeding, large ruptures of lung parenchyma, suppurative lung haematoma, cardiac tamponade, rupture of major airways, rupture of diaphragm, rupture of oesophagus and coagulated haemothorax). The achieved mortality of 5.9 percent is an excellent index suggesting a choice of treatment.