Delayed cardiac rupture occurring two months after blunt chest trauma.

ABSTRACT

We describe a rare case of successful repair of delayed cardiac rupture due to blunt chest trauma; the cardiac rupture occurred 74 days after the trauma. A 75-year-old woman with a history of blunt chest trauma that caused multiple rib fractures underwent an emergent thoracotomy due to left hemothorax. A coin-sized pericardial defect and cardiac rupture on the left ventricle was found to be close to a fractured rib, which was thought to have damaged the myocardium and thus induced time-dependent myocardial degeneration. The cardiac rupture and the pericardial defect did not induce life-threatening cardiac tamponade; however, the cardiac rupture did induce hemothorax, which could be successfully treated.