Secondary left ventricular injury with haemopericardium caused by a rib fracture after blunt chest trauma

Abstract

Trauma is the third most common cause of death in the West. In the US, approximately 90,000 deaths annually are traumatic in nature and over 75% of casualties from blunt trauma are due to chest injuries. Cardiac injuries from rib fractures following blunt trauma are extremely rare. We report the unusual case of a patient who fell from a height and presented with haemopericardium and haemothorax as a result of left ventricular and lingular lacerations and was sucessfully operated upon. © 2006 Kaul et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.