Great vessel and cardiac trauma.

Thoracic great vessel and cardiac trauma are characterized by anatomic location and mechanism of injury: blunt or penetrating. Management strategies are also directed by the extent and mechanism of injury. Advances in imaging and catheter-based technologies have allowed easier and more accurate diagnosis and less-invasive treatments. Although the advantages of endovascular techniques are attractive, open surgical repair remains the definitive treatment for many of these thoracic injuries. Given the increasing sophistication of these technologies and the demonstrated usefulness of a disease-oriented approach toward patient management, trauma centers have adopted a multidisciplinary team model for management of multitrauma victims. In this review, the authors detail the diagnosis and management of blunt aortic, nonaortic great vessel, blunt cardiac, and penetrating cardiac injuries.