[Rupture of the liver secondary to external cardiac massage in a patient with coronary disease : recovery after partial hepatectomy and aortocoronary by-pass (author's transl)].

A 55-year-old man developed ventricular fibrillation during an attack of acute Prinzmetal-type angina, and was treated by external cardiac massage and a defibrillator. Hemorrhagic shock due to laceration of the left side of the liver developed 48 hours later. A liver lobectomy was performed. The postoperative course was uneventful enabling a coronarography examination to be followed by an aortocoronary by-pass, good results being still present after one year. Complications of cardiac massage, especially those involving the liver, are discussed, as well as the treatment of traumatic liver lesions.