Open AccessWhere is the chest tube? Ectopic chest tube
Author(s) -
Mohamed Saleem Syed Abdul Kader,
Mohd Saiboon Ismail,
Amir Muhammad’ Abid
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
hong kong journal of emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.145
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2309-5407
pISSN - 1024-9079
DOI - 10.1177/1024907920981260
Subject(s) - medicine , chest tube , polytrauma , pneumothorax , flail chest , tension pneumothorax , chest injury , surgery , chest pain , blunt
Tension pneumothorax is one of the commonest life‐threatening condition seen in multiple injury or polytrauma trauma victims. Chest tube insertion has been the mainstay treatment for tension pneumothorax since early 1970s until today. Despite being a common procedure performed by an emergency resident, the incidence of complications related to the procedure remains significantly high. Iatrogenic complications are particularly more common in patients that are critically ill, obese or with a flail chest. This report will be discussing on an ectopic chest tube insertion during management of a case of traumatic tension pneumothorax in an obese patient with flail chest. Further discussions are on various recent updates on chest tube insertion procedures in an emergency setting. It is vital to understand that prior to chest tube insertion, it is important to acknowledge a possibility of complicated procedure by stratifying the risk of individual patients. Hence, this may reduce the risk of iatrogenic complications.