Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-25-2019
Abstract
Case summary A 33-year-old woman was transferred from an outside hospital with a penetrating injury to her right chest. The patient was shot with a crossbow with the entry site to the right breast/chest and a transmediastinal trajectory. She was intubated prior to arrival due to difficulty breathing. Her vital signs remained stable and within normal limits, with good breath sounds, and no evidence of pneumothorax on chest X-ray. The tip of the bolt was palpable at the patient’s left midaxillary line. Chest X-ray in trauma bay showed the transmediastinal trajectory, and the bolt appeared to have a field point (not a broadhead point) (figure 1). A CT of the chest was obtained to assist with surgical planning. Images showed the bolt penetrating the right chest, right ventricle and inferior aspect of the left ventricular muscle, through the stomach, and ending near the tip of the spleen with a fracture of the left seventh rib
Repository Citation
Jacobs, D.,
Hardman, C.,
Zaman, S. A.,
& Ekeh, A. P.
(2019). Crossbow Bolt Injury to the Heart. Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, 4 (1).
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/surg/804
DOI
10.1136/tsaco-2019-000301
PMCID
PMC6560479
