¿Es seguro el manejo médico conservador no quirúrgico en pacientes con hemotórax traumático?

Abstract

The hemothorax is defined as the presence of a collection of blood in the pleural space. The objective of this research was to determine if conservative nonsurgical management of traumatic hemothorax is safe. A descriptive and prospective study of a cohort of patients admitted with a diagnosis of chest trauma complicated with hemothorax was carried out from January 2013 to December 2016, in the Thorax Surgery Unit at the Hospital Dr. Adolfo Pons of the Instituto Venezolano de los Seguros Sociales (IVSS) in Maracaibo, Venezuela. A total of 150 patients were evaluated, the mean age was 30.9 years (range 24-65 years), with a predominance in males 85.2%. In most cases, the thoracic trauma was non-penetrating (60%), and the most frequent cause was bullet wounds (48%), car accident (26.6%), and bladed weapon wounds (25.3%). The right hemithorax was the most affected (53.3%). The volume of drained blood was classified in mild (25.3%), moderate (70.6%) and massive (3.9%). The treatment carried out in the first intention, in the 80% of the cases, was closed thoracostomy with a pleural catheter (24 Fr). However, in 13.3% of patients, it was necessary to perform open surgery on the pleural space (exploratory thoracostomy). The evolution of the patients was satisfactory in a 100% of the cases. Conclusion: The closed thoracostomy with pleural catheter plays a basic role in the initial nonsurgical treatment, being a safe, conservative procedure in these patients. However, the patient clinical condition should be taken into account to decrease complications and associated deaths.

Keywords:

hemotórax traumático

traumatismos torácicos

manejo conservador

toracotomía cerrada

traumatic hemothorax

thoracic injuries

nonsurgical

conservative

management

closed thoracostomy

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