Chest trauma in a Canadian urban setting--implications for trauma research in Canada.

The trauma registry at the Montreal General Hospital was reviewed to provide basic epidemiologic data on chest trauma in Canada and to compare these data with the minimal data available in the literature. Chest trauma in multiply injured patients resulted in higher Injury Severity Scores (ISSs) than the average. This was reflected in higher mortality for patients with chest trauma. The majority of injuries were caused by blunt trauma. Less than 9% of patients admitted to the hospital required thoracotomy for thoracic vascular and cardiac trauma. Outcome (measured by mortality) was better than that predicted from the literature based on admission ISS. The etiology of trauma in this Canadian setting and the resulting injury profiles were substantially different from those obtained from the predominantly American epidemiologic data available in the literature. This suggests the need for gathering more Canadian population-based trauma data for the planning of trauma prevention and care in this country.