Introduction and objectives: Trauma is considered a public health problem. It is one of the pathologies which lead to a greater level of disability and mortality in Latin America, and Colombia is not an exception. The aim of this study is to describe the main complications of surgical management of patients with penetrating thoracic trauma in a university hospital in southern Colombia. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was conducted on patients who were the victims of penetrating chest trauma, admitted from January 2013 to March 2015. Clinical, sociodemographic, complications, risk factors, and severity of lesions were evaluated; univariate analysis was performed; measures of central tendency and dispersion for continuous variables were calculated; the Chi-square test was used to measure statistical significance in the online software R version 2.15.2. Results: A total of 485 patients were analyzed, 8.65% (42) developed some complications. Among patients with some type of complications related to the surgical management of penetrating chest trauma, empyema was the main complication 59.52% (25), followed by pneumonia 28.57% (12) and ARDS 14, 91% (5). The mean age was 34.2 ± 8.23 years, and the mean ISS was 16.4 ± 2.91. Around 88.1% of the injuries were stabbing wounds, 61.9% cases presented hemothorax, 30.95% pneumothorax, and 7,14% hemopneumothorax respectively. The average hospital stay was 14.8 ± 2.45 days. Conclusion: Surgical complications after the operation in penetrating chest trauma are presented in a university hospital in southern Colombia. Posttraumatic empyema is the main complication that occurs in patients with penetrating chest trauma. One of the most important risk factor is coagulated hemothorax which could be identified and treated in time, avoiding comorbidities during the hospital stay.