A chest injury, also known as chest trauma, is any form of physical injury to the chest including the ribs, heart and lungs. Chest injuries account for 25% of all deaths from traumatic injury. Typically chest injuries are caused by blunt mechanisms such as direct, indirect, compression, contusion, deceleration, or blasts- caused by motor vehicle collisions or penetrating mechanisms such as stabbings. Classification
Chest injuries can be classified as blunt or penetrating. Blunt and penetrating injuries have different pathophysiologies and clinical courses. Specific types of injuries include:

Injuries to the chest wall
Chest wall contusions or hematomas. Rib fractures
Flail chest
Sternal fractures
Fractures of the shoulder girdle
Pulmonary injury (injury to the lung) and injuries involving the pleural space
Pulmonary contusion
Pulmonary laceration
Pneumothorax
Hemothorax
Hemopneumothorax
Injury to the airways
Tracheobronchial tear
Cardiac injury
Pericardial tamponade
Myocardial contusion
Traumatic arrest
Hemopericardium
Blood vessel injuries
Traumatic aortic rupture
Thoracic aorta injury
Aortic dissection
And injuries to other structures within the torso
Esophageal injury (Boerhaave syndrome)
Diaphragm injury

Diagnosis
Most blunt injuries are managed with relatively simple interventions like tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation and chest tube insertion. Diagnosis of blunt injuries may be more difficult and require additional investigations such as CT scanning. Penetrating injuries often require surgery, and complex investigations are usually not needed to come to a diagnosis. Patients with penetrating trauma may deteriorate rapidly, but may also recover much faster than patients with blunt injury. See also
Transmediastinal gunshot wound
Commotio thoracis

References


== External links ==
There is also evidence from a systematic review of randomized controlled trials that chewing gum, as a form of sham feeding, may stimulate gastrointestinal motility in the post-operative period and reduce the duration of postoperative ileus.If possible the underlying cause is corrected (e.g. replace electrolytes). Other animals
Ileus is a cause of colic in horses due to functional obstruction of the intestines. It is most commonly seen in horses postoperatively, especially following colic surgery. Horses experiencing ileus are at risk for gastric rupture due to rapid reflux build-up, and require intense medical management with frequent nasogastric intubation. Ileus may increase adhesion formation, because intestinal segments have more prolonged contact and intestinal distention causes serosal injury and ischemia. It is usually treated with aggressive fluid support, prokinetics, and anti-inflammatories. Terminology
ICD-10 coding reflects both impaired-peristalsis senses and mechanical-obstruction senses of the term as modified by various adjectives. Some authors have argued for trying to reserve the term for the impaired-peristalsis senses, under which prescription certain older terms such as "gallstone ileus" and "meconium ileus", although now technically misnomers, are still accepted as correct owing to their long-established usage. References
External links

MedlinePlus Encyclopedia: Intestinal Obstruction
Patient UK: Intestinal Obstruction and Ileus
PubMed Health: Intestinal obstruction
Ileus at eMedicine
Merck Manual Professional: Ileus