[1] Typically chest injuries are caused by blunt mechanisms such as direct, indirect, compression, contusion, deceleration, or blasts[2] caused by motor vehicle collisions or penetrating mechanisms such as stabbings.

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.

Chest trauma outcomes depend on the severity of the chest injury as well as associated injuries (such as head or spinal trauma) and the patient’s general health condition.

Management is a mixture of medical (eg pain relief, respiratory support, chest drainage and antibiotics), non-medical (physiotherapy and rehabilitation) and surgical (fixation of rib fractures if appropriate and operative treatment of cardiac, lung, airway, diaphragm and oesophageal injuries).