The effect of body mass index on chest trauma severity and prognosis.

Patients with thoracic trauma constitute one third of all the trauma cases, in west Sicily were recorded 941 thoracic trauma during the period between 2006 and 2009. Sicily is one of the Italian regions with the highest rate of obesity: some studies have demonstrated that obesity is an independent risk factor for mortality in high energy blunt traumas.This study was conducted with trauma patients older than 20 years old who presented to our Department during the last five years. We only included thoracic injuries and politrauma with a thoracic involvement and a BMI25. Patients were divided into two groups: HET and LET patients.Thoracic trauma was more common in patients with a BMI25 than in…