Introduction: Blunt chest trauma during road accidents vary from 2 to 71%. The anatomic location of the heart and great vessels beyond the sternum makes them vulnerable. It has been reported that blunt chest trauma can lead to a variety of different types of cardiac and great vessels' injuries.
Purpose: To raise awareness to the early and late complications of blunt chest trauma.
Methods and Subjects: We present two cases with acute myocardial infraction following a blunt chest trauma.
Case 1: A 38-year-old male, admitted to CCU because of chest pain, elevated cardiac enzymes and an anterior wall inverted T wave on ECG– 3 hours after a football game injury. CT angiography of the coronary arteries revealed a suspected dissection of LAD with 75-80% narrowing. This finding was resolved after 10 days, under conservative therapy.
Case 2: A 24-year-old healthy motorcycle rider was admitted to CCU because of dyspnea for 10 days, 9 months after a massive traumatic accident. An ECG showed diffuse QRS low voltage; a chest X-Ray revealed an enlarged cardiac silhouette, and a CT angiography demonstrated bilateral pleural effusions and normal coronary arteries. An echocardiogram demonstrated reduced LV function (LVEF = 20-25%), small pericardial effusion and an apical thrombus.
Conclusions: A patient after a blunt chest trauma should be evaluated and treated carefully, for the immediate and late sequels. Similarly, a careful medical history should be taken, as it has clinical and medico-legal implications.
