title: Pectus excavatum in blunt chest trauma: a case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Blunt cardiac rupture is an exceedingly rare injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report a case of blunt cardiac trauma in a 43-year-old Caucasian German mother with pectus excavatum who presented after a car accident in which she had been sitting in the front seat holding her two-year-old boy in her arms. The mother was awake and alert during the initial two hours after the accident but then proceeded to hemodynamically collapse. The child did not sustain any severe injuries. Intraoperatively, a combined one-cm laceration of the left atrium and right ventricle was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with pectus excavatum have an increased risk for cardiac rupture after blunt chest trauma because of compression between the sternum and spine. Therefore, patients with pectus excavatum and blunt chest trauma should be admitted to a Level I Trauma Center with a high degree of suspicion.
authors: Trauma Department, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str 1, Hannover, 30625, Germany. manoliodakis@yahoo.gr.
authors: Emmanouil
authors: E
authors: Liodakis
authors: Eirini
authors: E
authors: Liodaki
authors: Hrayr G
authors: HG
authors: Basmajian
authors: Nael
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authors: Petri
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