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Abstract
During the 12 year period from 1951 to 1963, 31 patients sustaining gunshot wounds
of the heart were alive on admission to the Jefferson Davis Hospital. Twenty patients
survived, an over-all mortality rate of 35.5 percent. Seventeen patients required
cardiorrhaphy with 10 deaths, a total operative mortality rate of 59 percent. Eight
patients were operated upon following perliminary pericardicentesis with only two
deaths or an operative mortality rate of only 25 percent. Eleven patients treated
primarily by pericardicentesis did not require surgery, and only one of them died.
Specific therapy was unnecessary in 3 patients all of whom survived. Among 19 patients
receiving pericardicentesis as either definitive treatment or in preparation for operation,
there were only 3 deaths, a mortality rate of 15 percent. It would appear from these
findings that pericardicentesis should be employed as the primary method of managing
gunshot wounds of the heart.
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Received:
May 13,
1964
Footnotes
☆Supported in part by United States Public Health Service Grant HE-03137 and United States Army Research and Development Command Contract No. DA-49-007-MD-2523.
Identification
Copyright
© 1965 Published by Elsevier Inc.
