الملخص الإنجليزي
Traumatic asphyxia, or Perthe's syndrome, is a rare clinical syndrome characterized by
cervicofacial cyanosis, petechiae, subconjunctival hemorrhage, neurological symptoms,
and thoracic injury. It affects both adults and children after blunt chest traumas. The
diagnosis of this condition is based mainly on the specific clinical signs, which should
immediately bring to mind the severity of the trauma, the various probable types of
pulmonary injuries, and the need for screening and careful assessment of other organs
that might also be injured. In this report, we describe the case of a 39-year-old male
who developed traumatic asphyxia after severe blunt chest trauma during his work
at a construction site. The patient had multiple injuries to the chest, abdomen, head
and neck, which were treated conservatively. An associated diaphragmatic injury was
successfully treated by video-assisted thoracic surgery. This patient is one of five patients
who were admitted to Saqr Hospital in the United Arab Emirates, diagnosed with
traumatic asphyxia, and treated by mechanical ventilator, supportive measures, and
fiberoptic bronchoscopy, for both diagnostic and therapeutic indications, in our unit in
the period between July 2006 and June 2013. As traumatic asphyxia is a systemic injury,
careful assessment of the patient and looking for other injuries is mandatory. Treatment
usually involves supportive measures to the affected organs, but surgical intervention
may sometimes prove to be an important part of the treatment. Bronchoscopy should be
performed for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons because of the associated pulmonary
and possible tracheobronchial injuries.
