Extrapericardial Tamponade Following Blunt Trauma.

Cardiac Tamponade results from compression of the heart and great vessels. Mediastinal hematoma has been reported in association with cardiac tamponade in multiple settings including non-aortic mediastinal hemorrhage from cervical spine fractures, aortic and carotid aneurysmal rupture, mediastinal penetrating trauma, and cardiac penetrating trauma. There have been a few reported cases of blunt trauma to the anterior chest wall resulting in tamponade formation (1,2). In this case, we present an anterior mediastinal hematoma resulting from blunt chest trauma which caused extrapericardial cardiac tamponade due to bleeding from a branch of the left internal mammary artery following a motor vehicle collision.