Out-of-Hospital Cardiopulmonary Arrest Due to Penetrating Cardiac Injury Treated by Percutaneous Cardiopulmonary Support in the Emergency Room: Report of a Case

Abstract

Penetrating cardiac injury tends to generally be repaired without cardiopulmonary bypass in the operating room. We herein report the case of penetrating cardiac injury repaired using percutaneous cardiopulmonary support in an emergency room. A 57-year-old man attempted suicide by stabbing himself in the left anterior chest with a knife. Although the patient suffered cardiopulmonary arrest for 7 min in the ambulance, spontaneous circulation was restored following pericardiotomy through emergency left thoracotomy in the emergency room. To prevent coronary artery injury and control the massive bleeding, percutaneous cardiopulmonary support was instituted without systemic heparinization and the cardiac injury was repaired in the emergency room. The patient was then transferred to another hospital on day 46 for further rehabilitation. Percutaneous cardiopulmonary support might be helpful for treating critical patients in an emergency room, even in the case of trauma patients.

Suicidal or Homicidal Sharp Force Injuries? A Review and Critical Analysis of the Heterogeneity in the Forensic Literature

“…The data collected from reviewing the literature concerning suicidal and homicidal injuries are summarized in Table .…”

How to mend a broken heart: a major stab wound of the left ventricle

“…Our patient was stabbed during a violent quarrel, thus being a typical stab victim, however, in Japan suicide attempts seem to be equally frequent [18,23]. In large series, gunshot wounds (GSW) are the predominant cause of cardiac penetrating trauma [2,4,6,29].…”