الفهرس 
Incidence of chest traumaOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
hundred patients with a primary diagnosis of chest trauma constituted the subject of this study. Three hundred and fifty five patients were males (88.75%) and 45 were females (11.25%). Two hundred and thirty patients (230/400 – 57.5%) were the result of blunt injuries. One hundred and seventy patients (170/400 – 42.5%) were due to penetrating injuries. The mean age in patients with blunt trauma was 30.78±17.78 years while it was 28.8±10.6 years in patients with penetrating chest trauma. The recorded data of the study subjects included age, gender, type of trauma (blunt or penetrating), outcome (morbidity or mortality), intrathoracic injuries (pneumothorax, hemothorax, hemopneumothorax, fracture ribs and sternum), associated extra-thoracic injuries (head and neck, abdominal, pelvic or extremity fractures), hemodynamic status on admission (shock was defined as a systolic blood pressure below 90 mmHg), need for ICU admission, need for mechanical ventilation, management, length of hospital stay (LOS) and trauma scores in form of AIS, ISS, NISS, RTS, APACHEII, TRISS, TTSS and CWIS. Rib fractures were present in 99/230 (43.04%) of patients with blunt trauma and the incidence of isolated rib fractures was 19.13% (44/230). Considering the whole group of patients, the most frequent isolated injury was pneumothorax (95/400) with an incidence of 23.75% followed by fracture ribs that occurred in 44/400 (11%) of cases. Hemothorax was least common as a solitary injury (36/400 – 9%). The previous injuries occurred also in groups of two or more lesions in a single patient in 84/400 (21%) cases. Associated injuries occurred in 147/400 (36.75%) of patients. Head injury alone (occurring in 25/147) accounted for 17% of associated injuries, abdominal injury accounted for 38% (56/147) and orthopedic injuries for 25.85% (38/147) while affection of more than one extra-thoracic system occurred in 28 cases (19.04%). Fifteen patients from the study group died, 11 with blunt trauma, and 4 with penetrating injury yielding a mortality rate of 3.75%. Mortality rate increased more than three folds to reach 13% (13/100) in patients with ISS of >16. RTS was found to be a major determinant of mortality as revealed by regression analysis. We identified Revised trauma score (RTS), Thoracic trauma severity score (TTSS) and need for ICU admission as independent predictors of patient mortality in chest trauma compared with other variables.