European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Vol 11, 843-847, Copyright © 1997 by European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
War injuries of the lungs
A Petricevic, N Ilic, A Bacic, M Petricevic, V Vidjak and S Tanfara
Department of Surgery, Split Clinical Hospital, Croatia.
OBJECTIVE: The authors' experience in the treatment of war injuries of the
lungs, gained during the war in Croatia, from August 25, 1991 until July 1,
1995, is presented. In that period, 424 patients with injuries of the lungs
were treated at the Split Clinical Hospital. METHODS: The paper is a
retrospective study of 424 wounded persons with lung injuries gained during
the war in Croatia, processed by basic statistical analysis. RESULTS:
Penetrating and nonpenetrating wounds were present in 331 (78.1%) and 93
(21.9%) patients, respectively. There were 407 (96.0%) men and 17 (4.0%)
women. Explosive wounds were most frequent (n = 251; 59.2%), followed by
gunshot wounds (n = 158: 37.3%) and other types of wounds in 15 (3.5%)
patients only. Thoracotomy was performed in 89 (22.9%) patients, whereas
conservative surgical methods (wound treatment, chest-tube drainage,
appropriate fluid therapy, antimicrobial and atelectasis prophylaxis) were
used in 300 (77.1%) patients. A great majority of the patients (n = 395;
93.2%) were discharged as fully recovered or in improved condition, 22
(5.2%) patients were referred to other institutions for further treatment,
and seven (1.7%) wounded persons died. CONCLUSIONS: It is shown that most
war wounds of the lungs can be successfully managed by 'conservative'
surgical treatment.
