Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Apr 28, 2025; 17(4): 105960
Published online Apr 28, 2025. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v17.i4.105960
Time to resolution of radiologically detected hemothorax in trauma patients: A retrospective observational study
Khalid Ahmed, Ammar Al-Hassani, Ayman El-Menyar, Syed Nabir, Mohamed Nadeem Ahmed, Ammar Almadani, Ismail Mahmood, Ahammed Mekkodathil, Ruben Peralta, Sandro Rizoli, Hassan Al-Thani
Khalid Ahmed, Ammar Al-Hassani, Ammar Almadani, Ismail Mahmood, Ruben Peralta, Sandro Rizoli, Hassan Al-Thani, Department of Surgery, Trauma Surgery, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Doha 3050, Qatar
Ayman El-Menyar, Ahammed Mekkodathil, Clinical Research, Trauma, and Vascular Surgery, Doha 24144, Qatar
Ayman El-Menyar, Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Qatar Foundation-Education City, Doha 24144, Qatar
Syed Nabir, Mohamed Nadeem Ahmed, Department of Radiology, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha 3050, Qatar
Ruben Peralta, Department of Surgery, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena, Santo Domingo 10100, Dominican Republic
Author contributions: Ahmed K and Al-Hassani A designed research and performed research; Nabir S and Nadeem M extracted and analyzed radiological data; Mekkodathil A analyzed data; Ahmed K, Al-Hassani A, Almadani A and Mahmood I wrote the paper, Al-Hassani A, El-Menyar A and Al-Thani H reviewed the manuscript and supervised the project. All authors contributed to the study design, data analysis and interpretation, and manuscript writing, and the final manuscript was approved.
Institutional review board statement: Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional review board (MRC-01-19-473) at the Medical Research Center, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Doha, Qatar.
Informed consent statement: Not applicable for this retrospective study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: All data are presented in the manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ayman El-Menyar, Professor, Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Qatar Foundation-Education City, Doha 24144, Qatar. aymanco65@yahoo.com
Received: February 12, 2025
Revised: March 15, 2025
Accepted: March 26, 2025
Published online: April 28, 2025
Processing time: 69 Days and 22.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Traumatic hemothorax often requires chest tube insertion for resolution. However, the duration of follow-up for small or retained hemothorax (RH) remains uncertain. We aimed to determine the appropriate follow-up duration by using chest radiography (CXR) or computed tomography (CT). The study included 422 patients. Of these, 75% resolved their hemothorax within 7 days and 11% on days 8 to 14 post-admission. A subset of patients continued to experience RH despite early tube insertion. Patients with larger hemothoraces, particularly on the left side, exhibited prolonged resolution times. Regular imaging using CXR or CT is recommended for up to 14 days post-intervention.