Identification of a small pericardial effusion on contrast-enhanced computed tomography indicating cardiac perforation and pericardial injury following blunt trauma: A case report.

•To acknowledge the difficulty of diagnosing cardiac perforation in patients with pericardial injury, based on conventional signs of blunt cardiac injury, such as sternal fracture, serum cardiac enzymes, and hemothorax.•To recognize that a small pericardial effusion on enhanced computed tomography scans is an important finding that should raise suspicion of cardiac perforation and pericardial injury.