[Penetrating wounds of the chest]

The authors report on 116 chest wound cases. The initial death rate is very high--47.41%. A knife wound is the most common cause (83.64%). Among casualties brought in alive, pure thorax wounds predominated (67.21%) followed by thoraco-abdominal wounds (26.23%) and cervico-thorax wounds (6.56%). Post-mortems attribute death to the seriousness of visceral lesions with the heart wounded in over 41.81% of the cases. The seriousness of chest wounds is stressed, as is the need for full and rapid therapy.