Volume 73 Number 2 March 2006	back to contents

Assistant Professor, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery and Division of Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Director of Emergency Critical Care, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ; and Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery and Division of Critical Care, Department of Medicine .

Address all correspondence to Marie-Carmelle Elie, M.D., 150 Bergen Street, M219, Newark, New Jersey 07103; e-mail: eliema@umdnj.edu

Accepted for publication July 2005.

ABSTRACT

The diagnosis and management of blunt cardiac injury, formerly known as myocardial contusion, has challenged clinicians for decades. Caused primarily by motor vehicle collisions, significant blunt cardiac injury carries a high mortality rate. Yet no reliable diagnostic test exists to identify those patients at greatest risk for an adverse outcome. A literature search using the MEDLINE database was performed to compose a review of epidemiology, diagnostic intervention, and therapeutic approach.

The results of the search indicate that, along with a high index of suspicion, utilizing a combination of electrocardiogram, troponin, and echocardiography for appropriate patients may improve the diagnosis, risk stratification and disposition of patients sustaining blunt cardiac injury.

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