Author: Shane Solger, MD & Andrea Greene, MD, MPH Reviewed by Leon Boudourakis, MD Deciding is easy. An obese patient with a flail chest needs a chest tube. You “gown up”, create your sterile field, position the patient, make the cut…blood seeps out and doubt rushes in. What if Read more…
Case: EMS brings in a 26-year-old male who reports he was stabbed in the back. He is speaking short phrases and complaining of a lot of pain on his right chest. Primary Survey: Airway intact, tachypnea with equal breath sounds bilaterally, strong pulses in all 4 extremities; GCS 15; small Read more…
It’s another day at your local university hospital. You’re nearing the end of your shift and wrapping up your cases. Your mind is already starting to wander with thoughts of what you’ll do on vacation. Suddenly, you hear some commotion stir through the ED — TRAUMA CODE to the hospital Read more…
Last month we discussed the use of needle aspiration as an alternative to placing a traditional large-bore chest tube in patients with spontaneous pneumothoraces. One of the selling points of using these less invasive methods is that they decrease the amount of time these patients spend in the hospital. In fact, Read more…
(A Review on Chest Tubes in the Trauma Patient ) Indications for Chest Tube Placement in Trauma Patients Pneumothorax (simple, tension) Hemothorax Esophageal rupture with gastric leak into pleural space Traumatic arrest (bilateral chest tubes) Quick Caveat: Detecting a traumatic pneumothorax in blunt chest trauma: Ultrasound vs Supine AP CXR- ULTRASOUND Read more…