Cardiac output, coronary flow, ventricular fibrillation and survival following varying degrees of myocardial contusion (original) (raw)

Myocardial injury is a frequent cause of death after blunt chest trauma. Death may occur immediately from rupture of valves or myocardium [7]. Immediate or delayed death due to ventricular fibrillation has been demonstrated experimentally and clinically [2, 3, 81. Depression of cardiac output has been shown following myocardial contusion without valve dysfunction [2]. Although cardiac function has been related to the amount of myocardium damaged following infarction, no such relationship has been demonstrated with contused myocardium [4,61. The importance of coronary flow changes in cardiac dysfunction accompanying contusion has been suggested by reports of coronary occlusion accompanying closed chest trauma [9]. Other studies suggest that flow to contused myocardium is increased [2].