Surviving right atrial rupture

According to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control, the occurrence of right atrial rupture after a motor vehicle accident is uncommon.3 A study of nearly 10,000 trauma patients admitted to the Shock Trauma Center of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Systems with blunt trauma showed an incidence of 0.14 per cent for right atrial rupture.1 Recent studies show that prompt diagnosis and treatment can improve chances of survival by nearly 80 per cent for patients suffering this type of devastating injury.4 Blunt cardiac injury may have many different presentations and because there are no universally accepted diagnostic criteria, the true incidence remains unknown. [...] the use of this modality early in the evaluation of all trauma patients presenting with the appropriate mechanism of injury is recommended.