OR / Prep · Trauma & Acute Care Surgery · open
You’re scrubbing into
Resuscitative thoracotomy
Why are we operating?
The last operation in the book: opening the chest of a patient in extremis to relieve tamponade, control the hilum, or clamp the aorta.
Indication: Penetrating chest trauma with recent loss of signs of life; the indications are narrow because the returns are.
The operation in 4 steps
01Left anterolateral thoracotomy
02Opening the pericardium
03Cardiac wound and hilar control
04Clamping the descending aorta
Watch it done
Resuscitative thoracotomy
A trauma centre's teaching session on the ED thoracotomy: when, how, and what the team does in the first minute.
Source: UCSD Trauma and Burn · Watch on YouTube
Conceptual teaching for learners preparing to observe and assist under supervision, not operative instructions. Five minutes from now you should know why this operation exists, what its shape is, and which structures it is designed not to injure.