Life-threatening spontaneous hematoma of the chest wall treated with packing and delayed chest closure

Abstract

Bleeding of the thoracic and abdominal wall most commonly occur in anticoagulated patients [1]. The management is based on anticoagulant therapy reversal which is mostly effective [2]. If conservative treatment is insufficient, good results are provided by endovascular embolization techniques [2,3]. The need of surgical intervention is extremely rare and limited to cases in which minimally invasive techniques are unsuccessful or somehow contraindicated [4].