Computed tomography in blunt chest trauma.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of multidetector spiral CT in patients with blunt chest trauma.

METHODS: Forty-two patients (38 males and four females), age range from 6 to 80 years, of blunt chest trauma were evaluated with multidetector computed tomogram (MDCT) after initial radiographs and the results were tabulated.

RESULTS: The most common mode of injury was motor vehicle accidents (64%). On computed tomography (CT), major injuries were haemothorax (83.33%), consolidation (66.6%), rib fractures (61.90%), pneumothorax (54.76%), diaphragmatic injury (30.95%), lung contusions (28.57%), spinal injury (16.66%), lacerations (9.52%), tracheo-bronchial injury (4.76%), mediastinal haematoma (4.76%), thoracic-aortic injury (4.76%) and oesophageal injury (2.38%). Operative intervention was performed in 11 (26.19%) patients. Of these, diaphragmatic rent repair was done in seven patients (63.63%), exploratory laparotomy alone was done in two (18.18%) and resection and anastomosis and polytetrafluoroethylene graft in one patient each. Three patients each with chest wall injury, thoracic vascular injury and diaphragmatic injury died; while only one patient with lung injury died.

CONCLUSION: Multidetector computed tomogram is the modality of choice for rapid assessment of emergency chest trauma patients.