Study objective: To better understand the types of chest injuries that
are likely to occur following a major earthquake in the urban environ
ment, we analyzed the pattern of chest injuries arising from the earth
quake that struck the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture in Japan at 5:
46 AM on January 17, 1995 and registered 7.2 on the Richter scale. Des
ign and setting: The medical records of 487 patients with injuries who
were referred to Kobe University Hospital from January 17 to January
23 were reviewed. Results: Of the 487 patients, 63 (12.9%) were found
to have chest injuries, Of these 63, eight patients with severe chest
compression were dead on arrival at the hospital, Eight patients were
admitted to our hospital, two of whom developed crush syndrome. The re
maining 47 (74.6%) patients had light to moderate injuries and were tr
eated in the emergency department on an outpatient basis. Conclusions:
Minor trauma was the most common type of chest injury. However, there
were severely injured patients who were trapped in collapsed building
s.