Abstract
Thoracoabdominal injuries in penetrating trauma are very important for two reasons. Firstly, they are characterized by a high morbidity and mortality due to the significant physiological impact on the patient. Secondly, it is often difficult to come to a conclusive decision on which cavity needs to be operated on, or, if both cavities have to be opened, which one takes priority. Therefore, it is difficult to give clear-cut guidelines, but certain aspects can render the decision-making process more error proof. Having said that, the surgeon should still have the flexibility to move from one cavity to the other if his initial decision was wrong or if life-threatening developments present intraoperatively from the other cavity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Degiannis, E., Hauer, T., Doll, D. (2017). Thoracoabdominal Injury. In: Velmahos, G., Degiannis, E., Doll, D. (eds) Penetrating Trauma. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49859-0_40
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49859-0_40
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-49857-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-49859-0
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)