Video assisted thoracoscopy in management of stable penetrating chest trauma. (Running title: thoracoscopy in penetrating chest trauma)

Abstract

Background: Although most of traumatic chest injuries do not require major operative interference and chest tube insertion remains the essential treatment, any patients who need thoracotomy in previous can benefit from less invasive surgical procedures as diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
This study aims to evaluate usage of video assisted thoracoscopy for Management of penetrating chest trauma in hemodynamically stable patients.

Methods: This is a retrospective study including all patients who underwent video assisted thoracoscopy for management of penetrating chest injuries in hemodynamically stable patients from January 2020 to December 2021.

Results: This study was carried out on 42 patients who underwent video assisted thoracoscopy for management of hemodynamically stable penetrating chest trauma. The overall mean age was 28.86 ± 8.45 and all patients were males. The most frequent surgical procedure was video assisted thoracoscopy evacuation of hematoma which was performed for 21 patients (50%), other procedures were 6 patients (14.29%) underwent video assisted thoracoscopy bullet extraction, 6 patients (14.29%) underwent video assisted thoracoscopy lung repair, and 6 patients (14.29%) underwent video assisted thoracoscopy diaphragmatic repair and 3 patients (7.14%) video assisted thoracoscopy bleeder control. Mean Operative time was 73.57 ± 11.51 minutes, postoperative duration of chest tube insertion was 2.71±0.83 days, postoperative length of hospital stay was 3± 1.04 days and interval between trauma and surgery was 9±7.84 days.

Conclusion: Video assisted thoracoscopy is a safe and effective way for management of hemodynamically stable patients with penetrating chest trauma in subacute and chronic conditions.