Needle thoracostomy

Simple thoracostomy. Moving beyong needle decompression in traumatic cardiac arrest.

Needle thoracostomy for tension pneumothorax: the Israeli Defense Forces experience.

BACKGROUND Point of injury needle thoracostomy (NT) for tension pneumothorax is potentially lifesaving. Recent data raised concerns regarding the efficacy of conventional NT devices. Owing to these considerations, the Israeli Defense Forces Medical Corps (IDF-MC) recently introduced a longer, wider, more durable catheter for the performance of rapid chest decompression. The present series repre...

Needle thoracostomy in the treatment of a tension pneumothorax in trauma patients: what size needle?

BACKGROUND A tension pneumothorax requires immediate decompression using a needle thoracostomy. According to advanced trauma life support guidelines this procedure is performed in the second intercostal space (ICS) in the midclavicular line (MCL), using a 4.5-cm (2-inch) catheter (5-cm needle). Previous studies have shown a failure rate of up to 40% using this technique. Case reports have sugge...

Prehospital thoracostomy.

We read with interest the article on prehospital thoracostomy published in the journal [1] and the correspondence that followed recently [2,3]. We work on the unit where the intervention was originally described [4]. In the last 10 years 1079 thoracostomies have been performed on prehospital patients in our system. This amounts to 9% of trauma patients attended in the same period. We are aware ...

Management of emergency department patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax: needle aspiration or tube thoracostomy?

STUDY OBJECTIVE The emergency management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax is controversial. This evidence-based emergency medicine review evaluates the existing evidence about the efficacy and safety of needle aspiration in comparison to tube thoracostomy for management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax. METHODS We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and other databases. We s...