lntroduction. Penetrating cardiac traumatism israre, but it is of extreme importance as it is associatedto high morbimortality. lt represents a diagnosticand therapeutic chal/enge. Most patients diebefare they get to hospital but those that do arrivewhile sti/1 alive have a high survival rate.Obiectives. The purpose of this paper is to revisecurrent trends in operative management ofcardio-perdicardiac wound as we/1 as analyzing ourexperience in the treatment of such patients.Design. Decriptive and retrospective analysis.Population. Thirty-three patients with operatedcardio-perdicardiac wounds in the period 09/1995thróugh 09/2004.Method. Data compi/ation recording demographicvariables; mechanism and lesion topography; lesionevaluation: approach; treatment and mortality.Results. Patients treated were 33 o ver a 9-yearperiod: 42% in the two-year period 2001-2002; 82%were male. Average age: 28 years old (16 to 48);

Introducción: El traumatismo cardíaco penetrantees poco frecuente, pero de extrema importanciaporque conlleva gran morbimortalídad. Representaun desafío diagnóstico y terapéutico. La mayoríafallece antes de llegar al hospital y los que lleganvivos tienen alta sobrevida.Obietivos: Revisar las tendencias actuales enel manejo operatorio de las heridas cardiopericárdicasy analizar nuestra experiencia en el tratamientode estos pacientes.Diseño: Análisis descriptivo, retrospectivo.Población: 33 pacientes con heridas cardiopericárdicasoperados en el período 09/1995 - 09/2004.Método: Recolección de datos consignandovariables demográficas; mecanismo y topografía