Factors Associated with Cardiac/Pericardial Injury among Blunt Injury Patients: A Nationwide Study in Japan

The lack of established diagnostic criteria makes diagnosing blunt cardiac injury difficult. We investigated the factors associated with blunt cardiac injury using the Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB) in a multicenter observational study of blunt trauma patients conducted between 2004 and 2018. The primary outcome was the incidence of blunt cardiac/pericardial injury. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors independently associated with blunt cardiac injuries. Of the 228,513 patients, 1002 (0.4%) had blunt cardiac injury. Hypotension on hospital arrival (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 4.536, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.802–5.412), thoracic aortic injury (AOR 2.722, 95% CI 1.947–3.806), pulmonary contusion (AOR 2.532, 95% CI 2.204–2.909), rib fracture (AOR 1.362, 95% CI 1.147–1.618), sternal fracture (AOR 3.319, 95% CI 2.696–4.085). and hemothorax/pneumothorax (AOR 1.689, 95% CI 1.423–2.006)) was positively associated with blunt cardiac injury. Regarding the types of patients, car drivers had a higher rate of blunt cardiac injury compared to other types of patients. Driving a car, hypotension on hospital arrival, thoracic aortic injury, pulmonary contusion, rib fracture, sternal fracture, and hemothorax/pneumothorax were positively associated with blunt cardiac injury.