Treatment results of cardiac tamponade due to thoracic trauma at Jeju Regional Trauma Center, Korea: a case series.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report the treatment results of patients with traumatic cardiac tamponade after the opening of Jeju Regional Trauma Center.

Methods: We analyzed the treatment outcomes of patients with traumatic cardiac tamponade who were treated at Jeju Regional Trauma Center from January 2018 to August 2022.

Results: Seven patients with traumatic cardiac tamponade were treated. The male to female ratio was 1.33:1 (four male and three female patients) and the average age was 60.3±7.2 years. The mechanism of injury was blunt trauma in six cases and penetrating injury in one case. Upon arrival at the emergency department, pericardiostomy was performed in four cases, and an emergency operation was performed in six cases. Pericardiostomy alone was performed in one patient, who had cardiac tamponade due to extrapericardial suprahepatic inferior vena cava rupture. The causes of cardiac tamponade were right atrium appendage rupture in one case, right ventricle rupture in one case, inferior vena cava rupture in two cases, right atrium and left atrium rupture in one case, both atria and left ventricle rupture in one case, and intercostal artery rupture in one case. In three cases, intraoperative cardiopulmonary bypass was required. Two of the seven patients died (mortality rate, 28.5%).

Conclusions: Relatively favorable treatment results were observed for traumatic cardiac tamponade patients after Jeju Regional Trauma Center was established.