Trauma is one of the biggest problems in modern society and the thoracic trauma occupies an important place as regards mortality. A bibliographical revision about thoracic trauma, its update, incidence, evaluation and prognosis of the injuries was made in order to update the knowledge about its treatment at the health institutions and to improve measures that reduce its incidence at the working centers.

El trauma constituye uno de los problemas más grandes de la sociedad moderna y especialmente el torácico ocupa un lugar importante con respecto a la mortalidad. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica sobre el trauma torácico, la incidencia, evaluación y pronóstico de las lesiones, con el propósito de actualizar los conocimientos sobre su tratamiento en las instituciones sanitarias y promover medidas que disminuyan la incidencia de estos en los centros laborales.

The credibility of the rules and the elements of power constitute fundamental keys in the analysis of the political institutions. This paper opens the "black box" of the European Union institutions and analyses the problem of credibility in the commitment of the Stability and Growth pact (SGP). This Pact (SGP) constituted a formal rule that tried to enforce budgetary discipline on the European States. Compliance with this contract could be ensured by the existence of "third party enforcement" or by the coincidence of the ex-ante and ex-post interests of the States (reputational capital). The fact is that states such as France or Germany failed to comply with the ruling and managed to avoid the application of sanctions. This article studies the transactions and the hierarchy of power that exists in the European institutions, and analyses the institutional framework included in the new European Constitution.