Acute laryngeal trauma: a comparison between peace time and war injuries.

Thirty-six patients with acute laryngeal trauma are presented. Sixteen patients had peace-time and 20 had war injuries. Peace-time injuries were mostly due to car accidents, violence and suicide using a knife, whereas the war injuries were caused by shell and mine fragments. Nine patients were treated conservatively (eight peace-time and one war-time) and 27 by surgery (eight peace-time and 19 war-time). Surgical experience showed that acute laryngeal trauma must be treated within the first 24 hours after injury. Primary treatment must be a definite one. In that way complications and uncontrolled healing can be successfully avoided.