Significance of the electrocardiogram in heart contusion due to blunt trauma.

In a series of 24 patients with major blunt chest trauma, 11 presented evidence of heart injury upon re-examination of serial ECGs and four were confirmed at autopsy. The clinical diagnosis had been recorded in only one patient. In every case of closed chest trauma, regardless of the degree of visible injury, cardiac injury must be suspected. A presumptive diagnosis is then made, usually on the basis of ECG changes, which cannot be ruled out by any other cause. Even in some cases with normal ECGs the clinician's suspicion is the only guide. With a presumptive diagnosis made, the patient is treated as is any patient with an irritable myocardium; bedrest, avoidance of conditions which may precipitate arrhythmias, and of fluid overload, and treatment of these complications as they arise. Anticoagulants are usually avoided. Followup for long periods is indicated, because of the occasional emergence of chronic constrictive pericarditis or ventricular aneurysm.