Air-to-surface missile wound of the thorax reconstructed with a polytetrafluoroethylene patch: case report

A method of reconstructing a chest wall defect following non-guided air-to-surface missile injury is described. The wall defect was simply closed with a polytetrafluoroethylene patch. The high risk of infection following use of the described method is well recognized. No infection occurred in this case. It could be stated that under the exigencies of the moment the use of prosthetic material to reconstruct the chest is not invariably followed by infection. However, when the patient is stable this latter problem can then be addressed by a variety of standard methods. It is concluded that the described method is particularly suitable in war circumstances, when it is usually necessary to attend to a large number of patients in a short period of time.