Blunt Chest Injuries - Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

A chest injury is any injury to the thoracic cage and its contents, including the lungs, heart, great vessels, tracheobronchial tree and the esophagus. Blunt chest injuries account for the majority of chest injuries sustained in motor vehicle accidents or falls. Blunt chest injuries range from a mild pulmonary contusion to a complete chamber rupture of the heart. Blunt chest injuries result from a combination of three mechanisms - direct transfer of energy, rapid deceleration, and compression of the heart. Other causes of blunt chest trauma include falls, sports injuries, violent acts, and crush and blast injuries. Blunt chest trauma leads to a wide range of injuries, from relatively minor soft tissue wounds to fatal pulmonary and cardiac damage. This usually produces severe dyspnea, cyanosis, agitation, extreme pain and, when air escapes into chest tissue, subcutaneous emphysema. Treatment for blunt chest trauma varies widely depending upon the type of injury.

Blunt chest trauma demands accurate assessments and rapid intervention to prevent unnecessary complications and death. The major objective in the initial management of patients with blunt chest trauma is the restoration and maintenance of normal cardiopulmonary function. Because most of the injuries commonly associated with blunt chest trauma can be diagnosed by chest radiography alone, all patients with suspected chest trauma should have a chest X-ray. In both blunt and penetrating injuries, massive blood loss may cause hypovolemic shock. Damage to solid abdominal organs (liver, spleen, pancreas, and kidneys) generally causes hemorrhage. Massive hemothorax is the most common cause of shock after a chest injury. Although slight bleeding occurs even with mild pneumothorax, such bleeding resolves very quickly, usually without changing the patient's condition.

Causes of Blunt Chest Injuriess

The common causes of Blunt chest injuries:

• Direct transfer of energy, rapid deceleration, and compression of the heart.
• Sports injuries.
• Crush and blast injuries.
• Violent acts.
• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Symptoms of Blunt chest injuries

Some sign and symptoms related to Blunt chest injuries are as follows:

• Pain.
• Absent breath sounds.
• Hemopysis.
• Discordant breathing pattern.
• Hypotension.
• Wheezing.

Treatment of Blunt chest injuries

• Treatment for blunt chest trauma varies widely depending upon the type of injury.
• An object that remains in the chest injury should not be removed.
• The injured person should be positioned with the injured side down.
• The neck and back of the injured person should be immobilized after a possible chest injury.
• An airtight dressing such as tin foil or a plastic sack should be used as quickly as possible to cover any hole that extends into the chest cavity.