Management of Warfare Chest Injuries

About 15 % of war injuries involve the chest. Fortunately 85% of patients sustaining chest injuries that reach medical facility will require clinical observation or a simple procedure like tube thoracostomy. Only one in six patients has life-threatening injuries that necessitate urgent operative repair. Early deaths are caused by airway obstruction, major respiratory problems such as tension pneumothorax or massive hemothorax, and cardiac tamponade. These conditions are easily managed if recognized promptly. Diagnosis and management of various components of chest injury requires clear judgment and indepth knowledge of pathophysiological mechanisms involved. The therapeutic goal in the war scenario is to restore normal physiology and thereby to restore cardiac and pulmonary function and evacuate the patient after stabilization.