During recent years important progress in intensive medicine methods has fundamentally changed the approach to and the management of acute chest trauma, which in developed countries is frequently related to road accidents, the number of which is still rising. It is important for the radiologist to become fully acquainted with the correct inter- pretation of findings on conventional radiographs as well as on CT. Appropriate and rapid therapeutic action in life-threatening situations will frequently result from the skillful inter- pretation of radiological findings and from the full integration...