Pulmonary Contusion - Classification

Classification

Pulmonary contusion and laceration are injuries to the lung tissue. Pulmonary laceration, in which lung tissue is torn or cut, differs from pulmonary contusion in that the former involves disruption of the macroscopic architecture of the lung, while the latter does not. When lacerations fill with blood, the result is pulmonary hematoma, a collection of blood within the lung tissue. Contusion involves hemorrhage in the alveoli (tiny air-filled sacs responsible for absorbing oxygen), but a hematoma is a discrete clot of blood not interspersed with lung tissue. A collapsed lung can result when the pleural cavity (the space outside the lung) accumulates blood (hemothorax) or air (pneumothorax) or both (hemopneumothorax). These conditions do not inherently involve damage to the lung tissue itself, but they may be associated with it. Injuries to the chest wall are also distinct from but may be associated with lung injuries. Chest wall injuries include rib fractures and flail chest, in which multiple ribs are broken so that a segment of the ribcage is detached from the rest of the chest wall and moves independently.