title: Thoracic Trauma: Which Chest Tube When and Where?
abstract: Clinical suspicion of hemo/pneumothorax: when in doubt, drain the chest. Stable chest trauma with hemo/pneumothorax: drain and wait. Unstable patient with dislocated trachea must be approached with drain in hand and scalpel ready. Massive hemo/pneumothorax may be controlled by drainage alone. The surgeon should not hesitate to open the chest if too much blood drains over a short period. The chest drainage procedure does not end with the last stitch; the second half of the match is still ahead. The drained patient is in need of physiotherapy and proper pain relief with an extended pleural space: control the suction system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Operational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, H7622 Pécs, Szigeti út 12, Hungary; Thoracic Surgery Unit, Department of Surgery, Aladar Petz Teaching Hospital, H9032 Győr, Vasvari Pál utca 2-4, Hungary. Electronic address: tfmolnar@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tamas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Molnar
mesh_terms: D015505:Chest Tubes; D004322:Drainage / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006491:Hemothorax / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011030:Pneumothorax / Q000601:surgery; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000601:surgery*
keywords: Chest trauma; Emergency surgery; Mass casualty; Traumatic hemo/pneumothorax; Triage