Emergency War Surgery NATO Handbook: Part IV: Regional Wounds and Injuries: Chapter XXVIII: Wounds and Injuries of the Chest
United States Department of Defense
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These chronic complications of thoracic trauma have the potential to become important sources of morbidity in future wars, unless the lessons learned in the past are remembered. Trapped lung results from incomplete early evacuation of blood from the pleural space with subsequent replacement of the fibrin clot by fibrous tissue, which, as it contracts, squeezes the lung into a nonfunctioning organ. Vital capacity is reduced and arterial hypoxemia may be apparent. Empyema, a frequent cause of death in World War I thoracic casualties, is another manifestation of inadequate evacuation of a hemothorax.
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