Dual chamber cardiac rupture following blunt thoracic trauma

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Author Info

Amy M. Kwok David R. Jeffcoach James W. Davis Lawrence Sue Mary M. Wolf Sammy S. Siada Victor W. McCray

Corresponding Author

James W. Davis
University of California San Francisco – Fresno, Fresno CA 93721, USA

A B S T R A C T

Introduction: Cardiac rupture following blunt thoracic trauma is rare. When diagnosed, these injuries have a mortality rate approaching 90%. Although there are reports of dual chamber cardiac rupture, there are no documented survivors from this injury. Case Report: A fifty-year-old man presents after high speed motor vehicle crash. On arrival, he was hypotensive with massive right hemothorax. He progressed to asystole but pulse was regained and he went to the operating room. Upon right thoracotomy we encountered a right pericardial laceration and his incision was converted to bilateral thoracotomy (clamshell). He was found to have both right and left atrial rupture. Both injuries were rapidly repaired. The patient survived to discharge neurologically intact. Discussion: Cardiac chamber rupture is rare and often fatal. Survival can occur with dual chamber rupture if swift action is taken and all members of the team work together.

Article Info

Article Type

Case Report

Publication history

Received: Tue 09, Apr 2019
Accepted: Mon 22, Apr 2019
Published: Tue 07, May 2019

Copyright

© 2023 James W. Davis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.SCR.2019.02.017