Retained intrathoracic foreign bodies due to penetrating chest trauma are treated mainly conservatively unless there is another indication for chest exploration.

Background Sleep is essential for full mental and physical renewal. Cardiac surgery improves the life expectancy and quality. But unfortunately, some patients lacked that merit as they suffered sleep disturbance. We used validated questionnaire applied to 153 cardiac surgery patients to assess the sleep disturbances after surgery. Results About 70 (45.8%) had valve procedure, 55 (36%) had revascularization, 19 (12.4%) had both procedures and 9 (5.8%) had other procedures. The majority had no post-operative bleeding nor infection. About 78% had sleeping difficulty for one month. About 50% used different medications to fall asleep, mostly analgesics. About 76% slept after 2–6 h irrespective of sleep quality. Some patients had poor sleep quality in the form of nightmares and night terrors. Conclusion Sleep quality was disturbed immediately following cardiac surgery. There was a reduction of night sleep compensated by increased daytime sleepiness. These changes almost reverted one month after surgery.

Background Cardiothoracic surgeons are facing a big challenge in their surgical practice in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The attitude towards performing surgery is influenced by the pandemic. Setting special recommendations for safe cardiothoracic surgery is of extreme importance. Methods This was an observational cross-sectional survey that included 77 Egyptian cardiothoracic surgeons. The survey consisted of a self-administered constructed questionnaire with six sections, and was delivered as a Google Forms questionnaire ( https://www.google.com/forms/about ) that was sent to individuals via social networks and email. Results More than 80% of Egyptian cardiothoracic surgeons believe they and their patients are at risk. Out of all participants, none had actually been infected with COVID-19 but 26% had encountered a positive COVID-19 person in their surgical team. Although 51% were testing patients before surgery, they reported 9 confirmed cases postoperatively. Computed tomography was the most recommended investigation prior to surgery (by 69%). Most had postponed elective surgeries and only one-third of all surgeons recommended performing elective surgeries cautiously with pretesting for COVID-19 and maximizing protective measures, while more than 40% recommended not performing high-risk elective surgeries. Conclusion We are committed to the safety of our patients, ourselves, our staff, and our families. Planning for the new phase of reopening, whether total reopening or step-by-step reopening, should carefully consider how we should utilize our resources, respect social distancing, and prevent exposure to untested patients or health workers who might turn out to be an undetected positive case.

Background Blunt traumatic airway injury is a life-threatening injury in which urgent management is pivotal and this would come through improving our clinical management and diagnostic tools. Our objective was to emphasize the importance of early referral and urgent surgical repair of major airway injury. Results Records of 42 patients with major airway injury out of 17,520 registered thoracic trauma cases were reviewed over the past 15 years. Twenty-eight cases documented to have major tracheobronchial injuries due to blunt trauma underwent surgical repair either urgent (21 cases) or late (7 cases). The age ranged from 8 to 43 years old with a mean age of 22.3 ± 0.8. The most common presenting symptom was shortness of breath in 22 (78.6%) cases and the most frequent sign was subcutaneous emphysema which was seen in 22 (78.6%) cases. The postoperative morbidity and mortality rates were significantly higher in the delayed repair group (p value < 0.001). Conclusion The urgent surgical repair is the treatment of choice for major airway injury which is facilitated by early recognition and referral. It is pivotal to avoid respiratory and systemic complications and related mortality.