Chest injuries in civilian life and their treatment.

Between 1971 and 1980, some 1,452 patients who had injuries to their chest were hospitalized and treated in our clinic; 949 (65.4 percent) of them had blunt chest injury, and 504 (34.7 percent) had open chest injury. Conservative treatment was given in 1,327 cases. Surgical exploration was carried out in the remaining 125 patients. Twenty-nine of these patients (2 percent) were operated on immediately, and late thoracotomy was carried out in 96 (8 percent). A total of 1,272 of the patients who had conservative treatment (95.9 percent) and 118 who had surgery (94 percent) recovered. The overall mortality in patients who had conservative treatment was 4.1 percent (55 cases) and in those who had surgery was 6 percent (seven cases).