A fatal case of heart and pericardium rupture after non-penetrating chest trauma by road accident

Heart lacerations following a non-penetrating chest trauma are rare events, few described in the literature. We report the case of a young woman who died just after a road accident, which determined a blunt thoracic trauma, with perforation of the right ventricle and the contiguous pericardium portion, and compound fractures of the sternum and the left ribs. The case presented is a rare evidence of indirect heart trauma, meaning that there was no correspondence between the chest impact/fracture site and the heart/pericardial lacerations.