Thoracic Surgical Approaches in the Trauma Setting: A Basic Review

The most common surgical intervention following chest injury is simply tube thoracostomy. Despite the fact that it is uncommon for more complex interventions to be required acutely, the overall mortality and complication rate following chest injury is as high as 25%. Complications in the post resuscitation phase not uncommon, and surgeons managing these patients must be facile with a number of exposures and techniques, the choice of which will be affected by the patients injury mechanism, stability and the setting in which the patient is initially resuscitated.