[Traumatic cardiac injury].

Traumatic cardiac injuries are classified into sharp and blunt injuries and show various pathologic conditions. For patients' survival, each pathologic condition should be rapidly evaluated and appropriately treated. In many patients, direct suturing of the wound without using extracorporeal circulation is possible. However, in patients with intra-cardiac injury or severe free-wall injury, or patients in whom the operative field is difficult to obtain, repair under extracorporeal circulation is necessary. In our patients with sharp injury, the survival rate after surgery was 100%. However, surgical results in patients with blunt injury were markedly affected by the presence or absence of complication injuries, particularly head injury, and the survival rate after surgery was 72.7%. The survival rate may be improved by: (1) rapid and appropriate evaluation of cardiac injury in patients with multiple injuries, (2) prompt surgical treatment, and (3) comprehensive postoperative management and treatment for complication injuries.