PENETRATING INJURIES OF THE SUBCLAVIAN VESSELS

A study was made of 76 patients with subclavian vessel injury. The mec hanism of trauma was stabbing in 40 patients (53 per cent) and gunshot in 36 (47 per cent). There were marked differences between the two gr oups in clinical presentation, operative management and outcome. The g roup with gunshot injury was characterized by a more immediate threat to life, and a greater need for a median sternotomy and use of interpo sition grafts. The mortality rate in patients with gunshot wounds was more than twice that in the group with stab injury.