Introduction: Penetrating cardiac injuries is still a diagnostic problem at this time. Their management requires immediate surgical intervention and excellent surgical critical care postoperatively.
Presentation of cases: A 15-year old male patient was stabbed with a knife to the right chest. The chest radiograph showed an haemothorax and the angiography showed an intercostals artery and a right auricle injury. After an emergency operation the patient was released home in good condition after the toracotomy had healed. A 19-year old male patient was stabbed with a knife to the chest more than once. By a left toracotomy we sutured the lesion of the left ventricle with multiple single stitch in non-absorbable suture, we covered the suture with a sealant. The patient released home in 24 days.
Discussion: Penetrating cardiac injuries is one of the leading cause of death from urban violence. To evaluate a thoracic trauma with cardiac injury it's clear the use of thorax X-ray and multislice angio-Tc scan. Echocardiography has clearly emerged for the diagnosis in patients haemodynamically stable. When the patient is haemodynamically unstable the emergency thoracotomy is mandatory.
Conclusion: Despite the high mortality of penetrating cardiac injuries new surgical and radiological tecniques may help surgeon to save this patients.
Presentiamo in questo breve lavoro due casi di ferita penetrante cardiaca in giovani pazienti di sesso maschile trattati chirurgicamente presso il trauma center dell’A.O.R.N. A. Cardarelli di Napoli. La peculiarità di entrambi i casi, più che nel trattamento chirurgico, che segue i canoni prescritti dalla letteratura internazionale, è nel timing. Entrambi I giovani,infatti, hanno ricevuto le prime cure in ospedali periferici per poi essere trasferiti nel nostro centro, lasciando che le cure del caso fossero differite di ore rispetto a ciò che ci si auspica in certi casi. Nonostante ciò i pazienti superano brillantemente l’intervento e vengono dimessi senza sequele. Per completare la discussione dei casi presentiamo una revisione della letteratura a riguardo dal 1986 al 2012.