TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - The profile of chest injuries in a southeastern Nigeria teaching hospital, a 10-year experience
JO  - Nigerian journal of medicine
A1  - Nwafor, I. A.
A1  - Eze, J. C.
A1  - Ezemba, N.
A1  - Onyekwulu, O. C.
A1  - Brown, Adikwu
A1  - Anyanwu, C. H.
SP  - 162
EP  - 169
VL  - 23
IS  - 2
N2  - BACKGROUND: Globally, major chest injuries have both high morbidity and mortality. A detailed study of chest injuries in south-eastern Nigeria is here presented. AIMS: To determine the incidence, the predisposing factors, the pattern of presentation and the outcome of management of chest injuries. <br><br>MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study spanning a period of 10 years (2002-2011). The medical records of all patients with documented chest injuries that presented to our hospital within the period under review, were retrieved and analysed, by simple arithmetic percentages. <br><br>RESULT: A total of 402 patients (average of 40/year) with the age ranges in the spectrum of 0-10 and 81-90 years, with a mean of 2.2 were found. Gender-wise, 301 males (74.9%) and 101 females (25.1%) were affected. The aetiological or the predisposing factors were blunt chest injuries (61.2%) and penetrating chest injuries (38.8%). In the pattern of presentation, haemothorax (20.9%), haemopneumothorax (16.2%), pneumothorax (17.4%) including simple, open and tension types as well as multiple ribs fractures (7.7%) constituted the majority. In the management strategies, conservative methods were mainly used. The outcome ranged from very good to fair. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The management of chest injuries in our sub-region like any other developing countries is very much challenging. Concerted efforts are needed to overcome the burden it imposes.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1115-2613
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -