The Incidence of Myocardial Contusion in 160 Patients with Blunt Chest Trauma Diagnostic Criteria and Outcome

The incidence of myocardial contusion after blunt chest trauma has been reported in 8.2 to 75% of trauma patients. We performed this study to report on the incidence of myocardial contusion in order to determine the frequency and to describe the type of complications in these patients. We conducted a retrospective analysis over a period of 4 years. There were 160 patients with a blunt chest trauma which were admitted to our hospital. Myocardial contusion occurred in 27 of our patients with blunt chest trauma (16.9%). In all these patients typical ECG-changes could be found during hospitalization (100%). The incidence of further pathological findings in the 27 patients was 30% for the auscultation, 37% for cardiac enzymes (MB-fraction), and 41% for the echocardiography. Cardiac complications like arrhythmias, cardiac failure and tamponade occurred in 20 patients (74%). Early diagnosis of myocardial contusion in patients with blunt chest trauma is important to prevent and to treat possible complications. ECG-controls have the highest sensitivity to detect a myocardial contusion, whereas cardiac enzymes and echocardiograms seem to be poor markers of blunt myocardial injury.