Le traumatisme thoracique grave aux urgences, stratégie de prise en charge initiale

Chest injury is a relative frequent situation and may result in respiratory and/or hemodynamic failure. Major etiologies are penetrating or blunt trauma. In 30% of cases, chest lesions are associated with multiple trauma. Initial evaluation in the emergency room is a challenging issue. Based of the relevant literature and their known experience, authors define the management of a chest trauma patient with a special emphasis for priorities of diagnostic procedure, chest tube and surgical indication. Initial chest injury management requires strict adherence to advanced trauma life support. Cooperation between surgeon, anaesthesiologist and emergency physician in diagnostic and treatment of these trauma is a condition for successful results.