Friday, February 06, 2009

Blunt Chest Trauma







A few notables on this chest X-ray. First, the patient is intubated and this can be seen by the linear marks on the tube (which could be advanced a couple of centimeters). But this patient has bigger problems, this patient has a ruptured diaphragm on the anatomical left (right as you look at the film), and her guts are in her chest. This happens when the human body goes from a cool 65mph to zero in about three feet and in about half a second. This patient did surprisingly well after surgery.

10 comments:

  1. Did the seat belt or steering wheel rupture it?

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  2. I am so glad you doctors can see that in the x-ray. I think I might be able to kind of make out what you are describing - but if you hadn't said what was wrong I would never have know what I was looking at.

    I just think it is absolutely amazing what kind of trauma the human body can sustain - and with the right kind of care - survive.

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  3. Was the lady wearing a safety belt at time of impact?

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  4. Traumatic Diaphragmatic Hernias suck, but not as much as that Transected Aorta...Ha! made you look!

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  5. good question about the safety belt... don't know, this case was from a half a year back or so.

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  6. Steve,
    Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to let the gang at M.D.O.D. do any beta testing for you.

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  7. My dad had a ruptured diaphram that was caused by a really BIG sneeeze. It happened while he was in the hospital (outpatient) for routine test. His only complaint was that he had a hard time breathing. I have never seen so many thoracic surgeons at one time. You'd think we were giving away free malpractice ins. They all commented that there was no record of a sneeze causing so much damage. I'm sure someone penned a "paper"

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  8. how old was the patient?

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