Clinical Challenges in Trauma Surgery: Penetrating Cardiac Trauma

A patient presents with a stab wound to the THE BOX.  What do you do?  X-ray?  FAST?  Heal with steel?  In this episode, the BTK trauma team discusses your options and gives you a few pro tips along the way.

Join Drs. Haut, Feinman, and Sigmon for a high-yield clinical challenge.

Hosts:

Elliott Haut, MD, PhD, a senior, nationally recognized name in trauma and acute care surgery at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Haut is a past president of The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST).

Marcie Feinman, MD, MEHP, the current program director of General Surgery Residency at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and editorial board member of SCORE.  She received her Masters in Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins.

David Sigmon, MD, MMEd, a PGY-5 resident at the University of Illinois at Chicago who plans on going into trauma surgery.  He did two years of research in surgical education at the University of Pennsylvania where he also received his Master’s in Medical Education.

Papers:

Inaba K, Chouliaras K, Zakaluzny S, et al. FAST ultrasound examination as a predictor of outcomes after resuscitative thoracotomy: a prospective evaluation. Ann Surg. 2015;262(3):512-518; discussion 516-518.
 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26258320/

Teeter W, Haase D. Updates in traumatic cardiac arrest. Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2020;38(4):891-901.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32981624/

Israr S, Cook AD, Chapple KM, et al. Pulseless electrical activity following traumatic cardiac arrest: Sign of life or death? Injury. 2019;50(9):1507
1510. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31147/183/