War injuries of the lungs

OBJECTIVE: The authors' experience in the treatment of war injuries ofthe lungs, gained during the war in Croatia, from August 25, 1991 untilJuly 1, 1995, is presented. In that period, 424 patients with injuries ofthe lungs were treated at the Split Clinical Hospital. METHODS: The paperis a retrospective study of 424 wounded persons with lung injuries gainedduring the war in Croatia, processed by basic statistical analysis.RESULTS: Penetrating and nonpenetrating wounds were present in 331 (78.1%)and 93 (21.9%) patients, respectively. There were 407 (96.0%) men and 17(4.0%) women. Explosive wounds were most frequent (n = 251; 59.2%),followed by gunshot wounds (n = 158: 37.3%) and other types of wounds in 15(3.5%) patients only. Thoracotomy was performed in 89 (22.9%) patients,whereas conservative surgical methods (wound treatment, chest-tubedrainage, appropriate fluid therapy, antimicrobial and atelectasisprophylaxis) were used in 300 (77.1%) patients. A great majority of thepatients (n = 395; 93.2%) were discharged as fully recovered or in improvedcondition, 22 (5.2%) patients were referred to other institutions forfurther treatment, and seven (1.7%) wounded persons died. CONCLUSIONS: Itis shown that most war wounds of the lungs can be successfully managed by'conservative' surgical treatment.