Clamshell thoracotomy and open heart massage-A potential life-saving procedure can be taught to emergency physicians An educational cadaveric pilot study

摘要

Aims: Selected patients in traumatic cardiac arrest may benefit from pre-hospital thoracotomy. Prehospital care physicians rarely have surgical training and the procedure is rarely performed in most European systems. Limited data exists to inform teaching and training for this procedure. We set out to run a pilot study to determine the time required to perform a thoracotomy and the a priori defined complication rate.