Chest trauma (or thoracic trauma) is a serious injury of the chest. Thoracic trauma is a common cause of significant isability and mortality, the leading cause of death from physical trauma after head and spinal cord injury. Blunt thoracic injuries are the primary or a contributing cause of about a quarter of all trauma-related deaths. The mortality rate is about 10%. Chest injuries were first described in detail in around 1600 BC in the ancient Egyptian Edwin Smith Papyrus.