Timely management of penetrating neck trauma: Report of three cases
A 53-year-old male was admitted to our emergency room with a laceration in the left neck. The laceration started in the sternocleidomastoid muscle, a third of the way anterior to the midpoint and continued to the anterior neck midline horizontally []. The injury occurred when he was being shaved by barber who had epilepsy and had a seizure while he was shaving him. When we examined the patient initially in the emergency room, he was not in respiratory distress. The flexible laryngoscopy examination was normal. His hemodynamic condition was stable. Doppler ultrasonography did not show any pathology of the vascular system. Under orotracheal intubation, we extended the wound at both ends by 1 cm. We saw that the lower third of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, thyrohyoid muscle, and omohyoid muscle had been cut horizontally. The anterior jugular vein was also cut. We stopped the bleeding with ligation and sutured the ends of the sternocleidomastoid, thyrohyoid, and omohyoid muscles together. We used a Hemovac tube for drainage. He was extubated without any problem and did not need a tracheotomy.