Case presentation: A 40-year-old woman was injured in a motor vehicle accident. Physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) was dispatched, and after the HEMS physician performed thoracostomy and tracheal intubation to relieve the tension pneumothorax and hemorrhagic shock, her carotid artery became unpalpable. The physician then decided to perform prehospital resuscitative thoracotomy. Immediately after arriving at the hospital, an emergency laparotomy was performed. Intraoperative findings showed that a huge uterine fibroid had been avulsed from the uterine wall, and we performed temporary hemostasis by extraction of the avulsed tumor and application of packing to the pelvic cavity. She was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital 42 days after the operation.
Conclusion: The injury mechanism in this case was considered a "submarine effect." This was an extremely rare case in which the acute care surgeon and a gynecologist collaboratively employed a damage control strategy to deal with impending cardiac arrest.
Keywords: Abdominal hemorrhage; Damage control surgery; Prehospital resuscitative thoracotomy; Submarine effect; Uterine fibroid avulsion.
© 2022 The Authors.