Traumatic ventricular septal defect: characterization with electrocardiogram-gated cardiac computed tomography angiography.

Ventricular septal defects as a result of blunt trauma to the chest have not been frequently reported in the literature. In addition, the majority of these cases have been imaged with echocardiography alone. We report a case in which a ventricular septal defect caused by blunt chest trauma was characterized with electrocardiogram-gated computed tomography angiography. A review of the current literature and theories of injury mechanism are also provided.