Lee Young Jaime T
Surgery, Port of Spain General Hospital, Port of Spain, TTO.
Cureus. 2024 Mar 20;16(3):e56539. doi: 10.7759/cureus.56539. eCollection 2024 Mar.
Traumatic penetrating cardiac injury is a rare pathology with a high mortality rate, more commonly occurring in a military setting or during violent assaults in a civilian environment. Given the anatomy, these injuries are often managed by cardiothoracic surgeons. However, in an institute that lacks these specialists, the responsibility for managing this condition falls on the shoulders of the general surgeon on call. We herein report a case where a penetrating cardiac injury was managed successfully by general surgeons in the absence of cardiothoracic surgeons. This case serves two educational purposes. The first is that Caribbean hospitals possess the potential to match a developed country's medical standard if additional resources can be obtained from their respective governing bodies. The second is that a general surgeon's role is not yet finished in the modern era of sub-specialization, especially in a setting that lacks dedicated specialists.
创伤性心脏穿透伤是一种罕见的病理情况，死亡率很高，更常见于军事环境或民用环境中的暴力袭击期间。鉴于其解剖结构，这些损伤通常由心胸外科医生处理。然而，在缺乏这些专科医生的机构中，处理这种情况的责任就落在了值班普通外科医生的肩上。我们在此报告一例在没有心胸外科医生的情况下由普通外科医生成功处理的心脏穿透伤病例。该病例有两个教育意义。其一，如果加勒比地区的医院能够从各自的管理机构获得额外资源，就有潜力达到发达国家的医疗标准。其二，在现代专科细分时代，普通外科医生的作用尚未结束，尤其是在缺乏专科医生的情况下。
