title: [Traumatic tricuspid valve insufficiency].
abstract: We report a case of tricuspid insufficiency in connection with blunt chest trauma. The patient was involved in a car accident. The central venous catheter showed a right ventricular pressure curve, suggestive of a tricuspid valve insufficiency. A transoesophageal echocardiographic examination supported this by revealing a papillary muscle rupture. This kind of injury has been seen more frequently during the last 35 years, partly because of better diagnostic procedures and a better understanding of the pathology. The decelerating force in the right ventricular chamber produces a regurgitation thereby initiating rupture of the papillary muscle and/or the chordae tendinae. In a literature study twelve out of thirteen patients were involved in car accidents. Some of them had a dominant V-wave in the venous pulse curve, but no clinical observation is directly diagnostic. Therefore, cardiac lesions should be kept in mind whenever there is a history of blunt chest trauma. The best diagnostic approach is echocardiography.
authors.affiliation: Anaestesiologisk afdeling, Sønderborg Sygehus.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grossmann
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D002496:Central Venous Pressure; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014262:Tricuspid Valve Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications*