[Successful repair of right atrial rupture due to nonpenetrating trauma of the chest].

A 24-year-old male was brought to our hospital after being injured in a traffic accident. On arrival, his blood pressure was 70/44 mmHg and his pulse rate was 135/min and regular. Chest X-p revealed cardiomegaly but there was no pleural effusion or bone fracture. Echocardiogram revealed cardiac tamponade and he was diagnosed as cardiac rupture due to non penetrating trauma. Under midline sternotomy, right atrial rupture was repaired. The patient developed cardiac arrest lasting approximately 8 minutes during anesthetic induction, so he needed to be ventilated for 8 days. However his postoperative course was not so eventful and he was discharged 38 days after surgery without any neurophysiological disturbance.