ABSTRACT

For all countries of the world, throughout history, trauma is the leading cause of premature years of life lost, accounting for more years of life lost than the next three causes of death (cancer, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases) combined. Thoracic trauma is responsible for up to 25% of the immediate deaths from trauma and is either responsible or contributes to an additional 25% of delayed trauma deaths. Among the trauma patients who die after reaching a health care facility, up to 33% of these deaths are preventable with appropriate systems applications, rapid transport, early diagnosis, appropriate therapy, expeditious indicated operation, and applications of surgical critical care principles postoperatively. A variety of thoracic operations are performed for specific conditions or injuries, and this chapter will focus on representative thoracic trauma operations. Although sporadic references to isolated injuries are made throughout history, the operations for thoracic trauma are a function of the twentieth century and principally the last half of the twentieth century.