Abstract

This is a retrospective study of 155 patients who sustained acute traumatic haemothorax, received and admitted to the thoracic and cardiovascular department at the Specialized Surgeries Hospital from October 1 st, 2016, till September 31 st, 2017. The patients were studied according to their age, gender, causative agents of trauma, and the management used for them till discharge, with the follow-up for complications. Our study was compared to another two studies, one from Turkey done from 1995 to 2003, taking only isolated traumatic haemothorax, and the other study was done here in Iraq but involving penetrating chest injuries from 2010 to 2011. Regarding the security circumstances of our country, there was an increase in penetrating trauma (61.3%) than blunt trauma (11.6%) in addition to blast injuries (27.1%). The injuries were more in males, in the 3rd decade of life, mostly from Baghdad. The traumatic haemothorax was          evaluated and managed accordingly. Thoracostomy tube was the main treatment in 136 (87.7%) cases, and 19 cases needed urgent thoracotomy for different indications, mainly continuous chest tube drainage. Early and complete evacuation of traumatic haemothorax should be considered to prevent the development of complications, mainly empyema or fibrothorax, ending in a “trapped lung.”

Keywords

Haemothorax, Thoracostomy, fibrothorax