Thoracic injury directly causes 20 to 25 percent of trauma deaths. Thoracic injury is a contributing factor in an additional 25 percent of patients who die from traumatic injuries. Thoracic trauma may result from either a blunt or penetrating mechanism of injury and causes a wide spectrum of injuries. The majority of chest trauma results from blunt force injury. Common causes are motor vehicle collisions and falls from heights. Eighty percent of patients presenting to the emergency department following thoracic trauma will not have hypotension or severe respiratory distress. This subset of thoracic trauma patients has a less- than one percent mortality rate. The mortality rate is much greater for patients who present with signs of shock or respiratory distress that require endotracheal intubation.
