Traumatic Asphyxia with Diaphragmatic Injury: A Case Report

Abstract

Traumatic asphyxia, or Perthe’s syndrome, is a rare clinical syndrome characterized by cervicofacial cyanosis, petechiae, subconjunctival hemorrhage, neurological symptoms, and thoracic injury. It affects both adults and children after blunt chest traumas. The diagnosis of this condition is based mainly on the specific clinical signs, which should immediately bring to mind the severity of the trauma, the various probable types of pulmonary injuries, and the need for screening and careful assessment of other organs that might also be injured. In this report, we describe the case of a 39-year-old male who developed traumatic asphyxia after severe blunt chest trauma during his work at a construction site. The patient had multiple injuries to the chest, abdomen, head and neck, which were treated conservatively. An associated diaphragmatic injury was successfully treated by video-assisted thoracic surgery. This patient is one of five patients who were admitted to Saqr Hospital in the United Arab Emirates, diagnosed with traumatic asphyxia, and treated by mechanical ventilator, supportive measures, and fiberoptic bronchoscopy, for both diagnostic and therapeutic indications, in our unit in the period between July 2006 and June 2013. As traumatic asphyxia is a systemic injury, careful assessment of the patient and looking for other injuries is mandatory. Treatment usually involves supportive measures to the affected organs, but surgical intervention may sometimes prove to be an important part of the treatment. Bronchoscopy should be performed for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons because of the associated pulmonary and possible tracheobronchial injuries.

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