Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine

Background: Pulmonary artery dissection is a rare condition that is usually diagnosed in patients exhibiting chronic pulmonary arterial hypertension, congenital heart abnormalities or secondary to iatrogenic injury. Diagnosis is often made at autopsy as many patients experience sudden death when the pulmonary artery dissection progresses rapidly and ruptures into the pericardium, resulting in acute cardiac tamponade.

Case Presentation: We report a case of pulmonary artery dissection, which resulted from blunt thoracic trauma diagnosed in the emergency department.