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- G C Velmahos, E Degiannis, I Souter, and R Saadia.
- Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.
- Surgery. 1994 Jun 1;115(6):694-7.
BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to examine the mortality rate of penetrating cardiac trauma in a large urban hospital.MethodsThis was a retrospective study over a period of 5 years and 5 months of all patients admitted alive with a stab or a gunshot cardiac injury.ResultsThere were 310 patients with a stab wound and 63 with a gunshot wound. The overall mortality rate was 19%. The mortality rates for the stab and the gunshot groups were 13% and 50.7%, respectively. In the 296 patients with a cardiac stab wound confined to a single chamber and with no other associated extracardiac injury the mortality rate was 8.5%.ConclusionsAn isolated cardiac stab wound is a relatively innocent injury in a patient at a hospital accustomed to managing penetrating trauma expeditiously.
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