[Cardiac contusion with dissecting hematoma of the apex of the heart and interventricular communication].

The authors report the case of a post-traumatic ventricular septal defect diagnosed after the detection of a systolic murmur in a 39 year old man, 18 months after a car accident. Two-dimensional echocardiography and angioscintigraphy showed an abnormal cavity at the apex of the heart. At cardiac catheterisation there was a moderate left-to-right ventricular shunt through this cavity. There were no traumatic or atheromatous lesions of the coronary arteries. The operative appearances were of stunned myocardium which had caused a dissecting haematoma of the cardiac apex which ruptured into both ventricular cavities. The lesions were corrected surgically and the systolic murmur disappeared.