[Blunt thoracic injuries in Oslo].

All 327 patients treated in Oslo City Hospital for blunt chest injuries during a period of three months were registered prospectively. 274 were treated outside hospital. Traffic accidents accounted for 10% of the total number of patients, but 40% of the hospitalized patients. Accidents in the home were most numerous, with many complications and admissions to hospital. 20% of the hospitalizations, were for injuries due to violence. The registration indicates more than 1,300 patients with chest injuries per year, of whom more than 40 are severely multitraumatized. The chest injury was serious in 21 patients, moderate in 306. 13.5% of the cases were complicated by pneumo-hemothorax and lung contusion, or by late complications such as pneumonia and atelectases. Seven patients (2.1%) died. These were old, physically disabled or multitraumatized. 100 patients had extrathoracic injuries, of whom 15 had intrathoracic injuries as well. In 227 patients with thoracic injuries only, the injuries were intrathoracic in six of them. The mortality in patients with chest wall injuries only was 0.7%, as compared with 20% in patients with intrathoracic injuries.