Abstract
Thoracoabdominal injuries represent some of the most challenging injuries facing trauma surgeons. American wartime experience has shown them to be some of the most critical injuries incurred in battlefield casualties. The diagnostic challenge of multiple body cavity injuries, the notorious difficulty of establishing the proper sequence for intervention, the high injury severity and frequent hemodynamic instability, and the inherent danger of cross-cavity contamination conspire to increase morbidity and mortality for these injuries.
The diagnosis of penetrating thoracoabdominal injuries is often predicated on the presence or absence of diaphragmatic penetration, which at times can be difficult to establish preoperatively. Errors in diagnosis often occur, as these injuries vex even the most experienced trauma surgeons. A particularly difficult scenario is the unstable patient whose operative findings on one side of the diaphragm cannot account for the patient’s hemodynamic instability.
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Asensio, J.A., Kessler, J.J., Dabestani, P.J., Cubano, M.A. (2023). The Ongoing Dilemma of Thoracoabdominal Injuries: Which Cavity and When?. In: Aseni, P., Grande, A.M., Leppäniemi, A., Chiara, O. (eds) The High-risk Surgical Patient. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17273-1_69
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