A Descriptive Evaluation of Thoracotomy in Patients with Thoracic Trauma: a Two-year Study at Shiraz Namazi Hospital

Trauma is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Among different types of injuries, chest trauma is responsible for a vast majority of trauma-related mortality and morbidity.
This descriptive, cross-sectional study included cases of thoracic trauma that underwent thoracotomy at Shiraz Namazi Hospital from March 2008 to March 2010. The collected data from each patient included: demographics (age and sex), type of trauma, type of surgical intervention, volume of hemothorax, number of packed red blood cells transfusions, and the consequent adverse effects.
A total number of 81 patients (mean age= 26.72 years old) were included in this study, of which 74 cases (91.4%) were male and 7 cases (8.6%) were female. Reportedly, the most prevalent type of trauma was penetrating injury (71.6 %); the most used surgical approach was left anterolateral thoracotomy (55.6%); the mean hemothorax volume was 1686.53 cc, and the average number of transfused pack red blood cells was 3.74 units per patient. The mean time of surgery was 161.25 minutes, and the most susceptible organ for injury was the lung with an injury prevalence rate of 55.4%. The mean duration of hospital stay was 8.43 days. 5 patients (6.2%) underwent a second surgery and 15 cases (18.5%) did not survive the surgery.
According to the findings of this study, anterolateral incision was the most used thoracotomy approach in patients with thoracic trauma.