Progress in diagnosis and treatment of traumatic flail chest and pulmomary contusion

Flail chest is a common consequence of blunt trauma,which is most often accompanied by pulmonary parenchymal injury and can be a life-threatening thoracic injury.It is easy to induce acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS) and respiratory failure.Better diagnosis was gained with multilayer spiral CT,transesophageal echocardiography,transthoracic echocardiography,video-assisted thoracic surgery.Its treatment is complex.Easing pain,favourable fixing of flail chest and assistant treating of mechanical ventilation are key strategies to improve treatment efficacy with traumatic flail chest combined with pulmomary contusion.We reviewed diagnosis and treatment progress of flail chest and pulmomary contusion in serious thoracic injury.