Blunt Cardiac Rupture: A Rare and Catastrophic Injury Case Report

Abstract

Trauma is a leading cause of mortality in individuals between 1 and 44 years of age. Among thoracic traumas, blunt cardiac injury (BCI) represents a relatively uncommon but potentially fatal entity. Approximately 20% of blunt chest traumas involve some form of cardiac injury, with this number increasing to 76% in cases of polytrauma. BCIs span a clinical spectrum from benign myocardial contusions to fatal multi-chamber ruptures. Blunt cardiac rupture, although rare, carries a high pre-hospital mortality rate and accounts for only 0.16–2% of hospital trauma admissions. We report a case of a 24-year-old male involved in a high-speed car-to-car collision, who arrived at the emergency department in cardiac arrest. He underwent immediate resuscitative thoracotomy, revealing a full-thickness rupture of the left ventricle. Although spontaneous circulation was restored after pericardial decompression and bleeding was temporarily controlled using a Foley catheter, the patient later developed cardiac edema and refractory arrhythmia and did not survive. This case emphasizes the rarity and lethality of blunt cardiac rupture, the need for rapid surgical intervention, and the critical role of multidisciplinary trauma care, including emergency medicine, surgery, and anesthesiology, in optimizing outcomes.