PREVENTABLE MORTALITY FOLLOWING SHARP PENETRATING CHEST TRAUMA

We examined the determinants of outcome following sharp penetrating ch est trauma (SPCT) in Cape Town, South Africa. During a 6-month period, 248 nonsurvivors (comprising 231 prehospital and 17 in-hospital death s) and 474 survivors admitted to the Groote Schuur Hospital Trauma Uni t were located. Most (77%) of the deaths resulted from cardiac or grea t vessel injuries. An unexpected finding was that in 47 (19%) of the p rehospital deaths, the only injury at autopsy was a unilateral lung wo und. There were no deaths in the 442 patients with this injury admitte d to the hospital. The survival rate following equivalent injuries was unexpectedly better in patients from poorer socioeconomic areas, poss ibly because of increased use of private transport to reach the hospit al. The key to improved outcome after survivable SPCT lies in rapid tr ansportation to adequate emergency care by the quickest available mean s.