Imaging of blunt chest trauma

In western European countries most blunt chest traumas are associated with motor vehicle and I sport-related accidents. In Switzerland, 39 of 10,000 i nhabitants were involved and severely injured in road accidents in 1998. Fi fty two percent of them suffered from blunt chest trauma. According to the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics,traumas represented in men the fourth ma jor cause of death (4 %) after cardiovascular disease (38 %), cancer (28 %) , and respiratory disease (7 %) in 1998. The outcome of chest trauma patien ts is determined mainly by the severity of the lesions, the prompt appropri ate treatment delivered on the scene of the accident, the time needed to tr ansport the patient to a trauma center, and the immediate recognition of th e lesions by a trained emergency team. Other determining factors include ag e as well as coexisting cardiac, pulmonary, and renal diseases. Our purpose was to review the wide I spectrum of pathologies related to blunt chest tr auma I involving the chest wall. pleura, lungs, trachea and bronchi, aorta, aortic arch vessels, and diaphragm. A particular focus on the diagnostic i mpact of CT is demonstrated.