EMERGENCY CASEBOOK
Case of the month: Intrathoracic rupture of a pectoral muscle haematoma
Emergency Department, Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Greenock, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr P Armstrong
peter.armstrong@tuht.scot.nhs.uk
Accepted 10 March 2006
Keywords: haematoma; heparin; pectoral; rib fracture
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Blunt chest wall trauma is a common reason for patients attending emergency departments. It may be the result of assault, falls, or motor vehicle accidents. Injuries sustained range from minor soft tissue damage and uncomplicated rib fractures to life threatening thoracic insults. Pectoral muscle haematomas following rib fractures are rare. We report such a case and discuss the subsequent clinical course and management.
[in a new window] Figure 1 Large pectoral haematoma. Informed consent was obtained for publication of this figure.
| |||||||||
A 31 year old male intravenous drug user, presented to our emergency department two weeks following a blunt trauma assault, during which he sustained a right sided chest injury. His complaint of right anterior chest pain exacerbated by deep inspiration, coughing, and movement, was associated with pyrexial episodes and night sweats. He was not taking any medication at the time, but was smoking 10–15 cigarettes per day.
Clinical examination revealed right sided bronchial breathing, confirmed
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
