Chest injuries. A review of 195 patients.

A retrospective analysis is presented of 195 consecutive patients with chest trauma, hospitalized from 1976 to 1984 at the Institute of Pathology and Surgery of the University of Cagliari. The most frequent causes were traffic accidents. In 11 patients the trauma was penetrating while 184 presented with blunt trauma. Conservative treatment was performed in 106, pleural drainage or thoracentesis in 29, and surgery in 60. Early osteosynthesis was performed in the 22 patients with flail chest and in 15 with multiple depressed fractures. Total mortality was 4.1%, and 13.6% in patients with flail chest. All deaths were associated with significant extrathoracic injuries.