A clinical analysis was performed on 404 cases of the chest trauma who were admitted and treated at department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Chung Ang University, Yong San Hospital during the past 8 years from July 1984 to April 1992. The results were as follows. 1. The sex ratio was 3: 1 with male predominence. 2. The common age groups were 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th decades. 3. The most common chief complaint was chest pain[58.2%]. 4. Of 404 cases of chest trauma, 50 cases were resulted from penetrating injuries whereas 354 cases were from non penetrating injuries. The most common cause of the non penetrating injuries was traffic accident[234/354, 66.1%] and of the penetrating injuries were stab wound[47/50, 94%]. 5. The left thorax was the preferred site of chest trauma. 6. The range of hospital stay was from less than 1 week to over 6 weeks and the average duration was about 2 weeks. 7. The common chest trauma was rib fracture[51.6%] and others were simple contusion [18.8%], hemothorax[14.6%], hemopneumothorax[14.9%] and pneumothorax[8.7i]. The rib fracture was prevalent between 4th to 9th rib laterally. 8. There were 92 cases of associated injuries which were bone fracture[66/92, 71.7%], head injury[17/92, 18.5%] and abdominal injury[9/92, 9.8%]. 9. The methods of treatment were conservative management[58.6%], closed tho-racostomy[23.3%], open thoracotomy[3.4%] and others. 10. There were 28 cases[6.9%] of complication, such as pneumonia, atelectasis, emp-yema, respiratory failure and others. 11. The overall mortality was 2.5%[10 cases] and causes of death were hypovolemic shock, acute renal failure, adult respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis and multiple organ failure.