We report here a young patient who developed an acute transmural anterior wall myocardial infarction secondary to blunt chest trauma in an automobile accident. At angiography we demonstrated that this patient had sustained a left anterior descending branch intimal tear (Figure 1). Closed chest wall injury with myocardial contusion is a common occurrence in automobile accidents. However, the occlusion of the coronary artery from blunt chest trauma is rare in itself.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Rea WJ, Sugg WL, Wilson LC, et al: Coronary artery lacerations: An analysis of 22 patients. Ann Thorac Surg7: 518-28, 1969.
2.
Espader R.: Surgical management of penetrating injuries to the coronary arteries. Surgery79: 755-60, 1975.
3.
Stern T., Wolf RY, Reichart B., et al: Coronary artery occlusion resulting from blunt trauma. JAMA1974.
4.
MacDonald D. : Repeated and fatal coronary thrombosis in a young man. JAMA116: 2846-8, 1941.
5.
Jokl E., Greenstein J.: Fatal coronary sclerosis in a boy of ten years. Lancet2: 659, 1944.
6.
Levy H.: Traumatic coronary thrombosis with myocardial infarction. Arch Intern Med84: 261-76, 1949.
7.
Lehmus HJ, Sundquist AB, Giddings LW: Coronary thrombosis with myocardial infarction secondary to nonpenetrating injury of the chest wall. Am Heart J47: 470-3, 1954.
8.
DeFeyter PJ, Roos JP: Traumatic myocardial infarction with subsequent normal coronary arteriogram . Eur J Cardiol6: 25-31, 1977.
9.
Oren A., Bar-Shlomo B., Stem S.: Acute coronary occlusion following blunt injury to the chest in the absence of coronary atherosclerosis. Am Heart J1976 .
10.
Harthorne JW , Kantrowitz PA, Dinsmore RE, Sanders CA: Traumatic myocardial infarction: report of a case with normal coronary angiogram. Ann Intern Med66: 341-4, 1967.
11.
Stewart J.: Primary traumatic coronary thrombosis. Br Med J1: 739-40, 1967.
12.
Oliva, Philip B, Hilgenberg A., McElroy D.: Obstruction of the proximal right coronary artery with acute inferior infarction due to blunt chest trauma. Ann Intern Med91: 205-207, 1979.