Resuscitative thoracotomy after stab heart injury. Two cases of tamponade, managed in a rural hospital

Two trauma cases are presented which were managed in a rural hospital by the same general surgeon team. The cases were two young men who were admitted to the hospital from prison in the last three years. Both of them sustained stab heart wound. They were hemodynamically unstable. The first one suffered a cardiac arrest after his arrival in the operating room. Both patients underwent an emergency left anterolateral thoracotomy according to the DSTC course principles and the current guidelines of Trauma Surgery. The first patient had a left ventricle wound and a lung laceration and the second a wound on the right ventricle. Both patients underwent definite surgical repair. They were referred hemodynamically and respiratorily stable to a cardiothoracic ICU in Athens. They were discharged with no postoperative complications a few days after the initial operation