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The cases of eight patients who underwent elective surgery for blunt cardiac trauma are presented. All but one experienced multiple trauma and the median Injury Severity Score was 26 (range, 18-59). A posttraumatic cardiac defect was diagnosed from 1 day up to 6.5 years (median, 3 weeks) after the accident. These included mitral regurgitation (n = 4), ventricular septal defect (n = 2), atrial septal defect with mitral regurgitation (n = 1), and ventricular aneurysm (n = 1). Elective cardiac surgery was performed from 4 weeks up to 12 years after the traumatic event (median, 18.5 months). A history of blunt chest trauma requires careful clinical follow-up supported by echocardiography in asymptomatic patients. Surgical therapy is performed according to standard techniques and the results are comparable with those of non-trauma surgery.

To analyze the characteristics of hemodynamic parameters and cerebral dynamics, the courses of intracranial pressure (ICP), cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and PaCO2 were analyzed retrospectively in 29 patients with severe head injury, comparing periods before and after the ventilatory mode was changed from controlled mechanical ventilation to spontaneous breathing with continuous positive airway pressure. Measurements were done before and after changing of the ventilation. Patients were allocated either to group I (n = 22, ICP remained stable: 18 +/- 2 mm Hg in both periods of observation) or group II (n = 7, ICP increased from 25 +/- 3 mm Hg to 33 +/- 4 mm Hg, P < 0.05). While changes of MAP did not reach significant levels in either group, concomitant changes in CCP appeared in group II (67 +/- 2 mm Hg to 60 +/- 2 mm Hg). Based on the observation of relatively high incidence of ICP increases and deterioration of CPP during weaning from ventilator, it is recommended that continuous ICP monitoring should be continued.

Between 1972 and 1990 11 patients--all but one of them with multiple injuries--were treated surgically for blunt cardiac trauma caused by traffic accident in about 90%. Myocardial rupture (n = 3), laceration of the pericardial sac (n = 1), mitral insufficiency (n = 5; one of them in combination with atrial septal defect), ventricular septal defect (n = 1) and myocardial aneurysm (n = 1) occurred. Patients with myocardial rupture and pericardial laceration died within 2 h after admission to hospital; the other patients were successfully treated by mitral valve replacement (n = 4), mitral valvuloplasty and repair of ASD, suture repair of VSD and resection of myocardial aneurysm in one case, respectively. The interval to operation was 8 months to 12 years. Whereas pericardial tamponade caused by rupture of the atrial or ventricular wall and injuries of main coronary vessels require immediate surgical intervention, valve insufficiencies, septal defects or myocardial aneurysms may be mostly treated at a later date. Improvement of logistic measurements and the suspicion of blunt cardiac trauma followed by immediate surgical intervention may reduce the mortality rate in cases of cardiac rupture.

The histories of 66 patients with blunt abdominal trauma requiring surgery in the period from 1985 to 1989 were analysed. The patients were divided into three groups on the basis of the other injuries present. Group I, isolated blunt abdominal trauma and blunt abdominal trauma with slight concomitant injuries (18 patients, ISS 17.17 +/- 1.40); group II, blunt abdominal trauma with severe concomitant injuries but without craniocerebral trauma (23 patients, ISS 29.34 +/- 1.45); and group III, blunt abdominal trauma with severe concomitant injuries and an additional craniocerebral trauma (25 patients, ISS 31.08 +/- 1.27, GCS: 10.04 +/- 0.88). Initially, the diagnosis was made in 23 cases by means of diagnostic peritoneal lavage and in 43 cases by means of sonography. The subsequent laparotomy revealed the ultrasound findings to have been false-positive in 3 cases. No false-negative ultrasound findings were demonstrated at all. Peritoneal lavage, on the other hand, was found to have yielded false-negative and false-positive findings in 2 cases each. Counting from the time of admission, the time up to diagnosis of the intra-abdominal injury was 85 +/- 14.3 min in group I, 82 +/- 9.9 min in group II, and 86 +/- 12.9 min in group III. Thus, the presence of severe additional injuries did not lead to any significant delay in the diagnosis of blunt abdominal injury requiring surgery. The total mortality rate was 18.18% (group I, 11.1%; group II, 21.7%; group III, 20.0%). Six patients died in the acute phase and a further six patients during their stay on the intensive care ward.

Twenty-three patients (mean age: 81.2 years) were followed up for an average of 4.6 years after conservative treatment of olecranon fractures. Long-term subjective, objective and roentgenographic results were compared with the data for 19 operatively treated patients (mean age 45.8 years). Objectively the results were significantly poorer after conservative treatment than after operative treatment: We found 42.2% excellent and good results in the conservative group, whereas the findings were excellent or good in 84.2% of results in the operative group. The differences were found mainly in the function of the elbow joint and in the radiographic findings. In the subjective results, however, we found no statistically significant difference between the long-term results of the two groups. The results were felt to be excellent or good by 87% of the patients who had undergone conservative treatment and by 84.2% of those treated operatively.

Of 54 patients with posterior dislocations of the hip of type I and type II (Stewart and Milford 1954), 47 were followed for a mean period of 6.7 years (2 to 11). Of these, 23 had dislocation with minimal lesions of the acetabulum (type I) and 24 had an avulsed dorsocranial fragment (type II). All were reduced by closed methods within six hours. The subsequent treatment of type I dislocations was conservative. At the beginning of the period type II injuries were treated conservatively, but surgery was increasingly chosen for later cases. Type I dislocations had significantly better results (p < 0.05) than type II fracture-dislocations, regardless of the method of treatment. There were no essential differences between the results of surgical and conservative treatment in type II dislocations.

One hundred forty-two patients with malleolar fractures were followed up for an average of 5.7 years postoperatively. In 80 cases (56.4%) we found no lesion of the distal articular surface of the tibia; 62 patients (43.6%) had a fracture of the posterior tibial margin. Both groups were closely matched with regard to fractures of the lateral and medial malleolus. The long-term results were significantly poorer when a fracture of the posterior tibial margin was additionally present, even in cases with a small marginal fragment of the lip of the tibia. Further, we found a clear relationship between the articular involvement and the incidence of post-traumatic osteoarthrosis in cases with no additional osteosynthesis of the fragment. In cases of larger fragments, the long-term results after anatomic reduction and additional osteosynthesis were on the whole far better than in cases treated conservatively.

Between 1976 and 1985, 96 patients with 97 fractures of the patella have been operated at the 2nd Department of Trauma Surgery, University of Vienna. According to the radiographs the fractures were classified in nine apical fractures (9.3%), 34 transverse fractures (35.1%), two longitudinal fractures (2.1%), three star-like fractures (3.1%), 25 multifragment fractures (25.8%) and 24 comminuted fractures (24.7%). The methods of operation employed are: In 34 patients standard circumferential wiring, in 43 patients tension-band wiring either alone or combined with Kirschner-wires and in 13 patients partial patellectomie. One fracture was fixed with a screw alone. 47 patients with 48 fractures were followed up clinically and radiologically three to nine years postoperatively. The overall results were in 16 cases excellent, in 23 cases fair and in nine cases poor. The possible surgical procedures of the various forms of fractures are discussed referring to their longterm results.

This is a report on 18 osteochondral lesions of the talar dome after sprained ankles and ruptured lateral collateral ligaments of the ankle. They were classified according to Berndt & Harty. The treatment of choice in recent flake fractures is the reduction and glueing with fibrine. Very good results were obtained according to Weber. The recommended treatment of ancient flake fractures frequently occurring to elder patients is the removal of the fragment and the drilling of the subchondral bone.