The profile of chest injuries in a southeastern Nigeria teaching hospital, a 10-year experience.

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.

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.

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.

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.