title: Delayed diagnosis of a complete bronchial rupture after blunt thoracic trauma.
abstract: Bronchial ruptures due to blunt chest traumas are rarely encountered injuries. They can be missed in the emergency room depending on the clinical findings. We present a case report of a previously healthy 32-year-old woman who received multiple rib and clavicula fractures on the right side in a traffic accident. The plain radiograms taken on the first and fifth day showed no other pathological findings than the above-mentioned fractures. Her control chest radiography, which was taken 7 weeks later, showed a totally opaque left hemithorax but no findings of pneumothorax were present. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy and virtual bronchoscopy showed a left main bronchial rupture. The patient was treated with an end-to-end anastomosis via left posterolateral thoracotomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Yedikule Teaching Hospital for Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul, Turkey. dradalet@hotmail.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Demir
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olcmen
authors.forename: H V
authors.initials: HV
authors.lastname: Kara
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Dincer
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D001980:Bronchi / Q000293:injuries* / Q000601:surgery; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D005260:Female; D006097:Granulation Tissue / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D001261:Pulmonary Atelectasis / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D012421:Rupture; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications*