[Cardiac injury successfully treated by emergency cardiorrhaphy--a report of 5 cases]

Five cases who were successfully treated for cardiac injuries by emergency cardiorrhaphy were reported. The range of the ages of the patients was 14 to 71 years. Four of the 5 were males with stab wounds and one was a 71-year-old female with a blunt injury by motor vehicle accident. As to the site of cardiac wounds, all of the cases suffered single chamber injury. In the cases of stab wounds, the right atrium was involved in one case and the right ventricle was involved in the three others. The site of the blunt injury was the left auricle. However there was only one case with the pre-operative diagnosis of cardiac injury. The emergency room thoracotomy was done in 2 cases. One was stab injury and the other was blunt trauma. Both of them had an uneventfull post-operative course without any infection. In conclusion, ERT is most helpful when used in the cases with PI* < or = 15. *: physiologic index (Ivatury).