1994 Volume 8 Issue 7 Pages 840-844
A case of thoracic trauma in a 48-year-old man is reported. His thorax was struck by iron chips while manufacturing automobile parts. On admission continuous bleeding and air leaking from the chest drain were noted and a diagnosis of pneumohemothorax was made. Emergercy thoracoscopy revealed the pneumohemothorax to be caused by pulmonary parenchymal injury. Under thoracoscopy we extracted the iron chips and sutured the injury site by auto-suture.
Emergency thoracoscopic examination is useful for : 1) direct confirmation as to the site as well as extent of injuries of both the circulatory system (aorta, vena cava, and pulmonary artery/vein) and the respiratory system (lung, trachea, bronchi and diaphragm) : and 2) determination of procedures of either thoracoscopic surgery or thoracotomy.
Thoracoscopic surgery limits the incision size and extent of invasion. Thus patients undergoing such surgery can ambulate and be discharged earlier than those treated by other procedures.
