Prehospital ultrasound detects pericardial tamponade in a pregnant victim of stabbing assault

• Published in: Resuscitation Vol. 76; no. 1; pp. 146 - 148
• Main Authors: Byhahn, Christian, Bingold, Tobias M, Zwissler, Bernhard, Maier, Marcus, Walcher, Felix
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.01.2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiac Tamponade - diagnostic imaging; Cardiac Tamponade - etiology; Cardiac Tamponade - surgery; Cesarean Section; Emergency; Emergency and intensive care: injuries, diseases due to physical agents. Diving. Drowning. Disaster medicine; Emergency Medical Services; Emergency treatment; Female; Humans; Intensive care medicine; Medical sciences; Pericardial tamponade; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Outcome; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Thoracotomy; Trauma; Ultrasonography - instrumentation; Victimology; Wounds, Stab - complications; Wounds, Stab - diagnostic imaging; Wounds, Stab - surgery; Pericardial tamponade; Trauma; Emergency treatment; Intensive care; Cardiac tamponade; Cardiovascular disease; Pregnancy; Treatment; Heart disease; Pericardial disease; Emergency; Ultrasound; Resuscitation
• ISSN: 0300-9572; 1873-1570
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2007.07.020

Summary The development of handheld, portable ultrasound devices has enabled the use of this diagnostic tool also in the out-of-hospital environment. We report on a pregnant teenager who was found haemodynamically unstable after a stab assault. When she suffered cardiac arrest shortly thereafter, diagnosis of cardiac tamponade was made by portable ultrasound, and immediate pericardiocentesis was performed by the emergency physician. While her baby died after emergency Caesarean section, the teenager survived after thoracotomy and prolonged resuscitation without neurological sequelae.