[Injury of the coronary artery following non-penetrating chest trauma--a case report].
A previously healthy 71-year-old man sustained a non-penetrating chest trauma. The chest CT scan revealed cardiac tamponade and then emergent operation was performed. We opened the pericardium through median sternotomy and found a laceration of the distal left anterior descending coronary artery (seg. 8). We ligated the artery and he showed signs of a limited myocardial infarction on the postoperative ECGs, but echocardiography revealed symmetric contraction and normal ejection fraction. His postoperative course was uneventful. We think that injuries of distal coronary arteries could be successfully ligated.