Delayed diagnosis of traumatic ventricular septal defect in penetrating chest injury: small evidence on echocardiography makes big difference.
Cardiac trauma from penetrating chest injury is a life-threatening condition. It was reported that < 10% of patients arrives at the emergency department alive. Penetrating chest injury can cause serious damage in more than 1 cardiac structure, including myocardial lacerations, ventricular septal defect (VSD), fistula between aorta and right cardiac chamber and valves. The presence of pericardial effusion (even a small amount) on the initial echocardiography might be the only clue to serious cardiac damage in the absence of definite evidence of anatomical defect in heart. We here present a case, in which clear diagnosis of VSD and pseudoaneurysmal formation was delayed a few days after penetrating chest injury due to the lack of anatomical evidence of damage.
Jeon
Kihyun
K
Cardiovascular Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lim
Woo-Hyun
WH
Kang
Si-Hyuck
SH
Cho
Iksung
I
Kim
Kyung-Hee
KH
Kim
Hyung-Kwan
HK
Kim
Yong-Jin
YJ
Sohn
Dae-Won
DW