الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 100 |  |  |
| | | from | 100 | | |
Abstract
Thoracic injuries are significant causes of morbidity and mortality in trauma patients. Injuries to the thorax are the third most common injuries in trauma patients, next to injuries to the head and extremities. Therefore, prompt diagnosis of blunt thoracic injuries is imperative.
Radiologic imaging plays an important role in the workup of the patient with thoracic trauma. The chest radiograph is the initial radiographic study in patients with thoracic blunt trauma. It is an important adjunct in the diagnosis of many conditions, including chest wall fractures, pneumothorax, hemothorax, and can suspect other injuries to the heart and great vessels (e.g., enlarged cardiac silhouette, widened mediastinum).
On the other hand, computed tomography (CT) is now used frequently in the evaluation of chest trauma. The primary role of chest CT has been to assess for aortic injuries, but CT has been shown to be useful for the evaluation of pulmonary, airway, skeletal, and diaphragmatic injuries as well. CT has overall greater sensitivity than radiography in the detection of pulmonary lacerations and pneumothoraces. Also it may be indicated in cases of suspected tracheobronchial injury.
CT provides optimal visualization of thoracic spine fractures and superior assessment of suspected sternal fractures or sternoclavicular dislocation. Targeted spiral CT with sagittal and coronal reformatted images has increased sensitivity and specificity over that provided by conventional axial CT in the detection of diaphragmatic injury.
Assessment of thoracic vascular emergency is nowadays possible by using multirow CT angiography as a golden sole strategy.