BACKGROUND Bilateral pneumothoraces after cosmetic breast surgery are rare and sporadically reported in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION A 65-year-old female patient developed bilateral pneumothoraces after bilateral breast reduction surgery. Emergent chest tube thoracostomy was performed on both sides. The chest drains were removed on the fourth day (left side) and sixth day (right side), a...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Transthoracic ultrasound has received increased interest from chest physicians in recent years. Modern ultrasound devices are user friendly, inexpensive, lightweight, and portable, which makes them suited for outpatient settings as well as for bedside investigation of the severely ill. Ultrasound is set to become a practical and essential tool for the pulmonologist in the near...

The authors sought to determine to what degree current practice by hospital physicians and accident and emergency (A&E) departments in Wales conformed to the British Thoracic Society's guidelines for the management of spontaneous pneumothorax. Questionnaires were posted to all consultants involved in emergency medical admissions in Wales (149 consultant physicians and 23 A&E consultants) of who...

BACKGROUND Two doctors working on a busy intensive care unit sustained injuries whilst removing a chest drain from an HIV-positive patient. One doctor had a needlestick injury into his finger whilst the other sustained an eyesplash when the chest drain was pulled out. METHODS Following Department of Health format 'Doing less harm', a root cause and human factor analysis of the incident was ca...

Online supplements are not copyedited prior to posting. © 2010 American College of Chest Physicians. Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (http://www.chestpubs.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml). DOI: 10.1378/chest.10­1193 1
 Thoracentesis and Chest Tube Management in Critical Care Medicine A Multicenter Survey of Curre...

There are only a few studies with a small sample size of patients that have compared the risks of using chest tubes versus thoracentesis in hepatic hydrothorax. It has been shown that many complications may arise secondary to chest tube placement and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In this retrospective study, patients with cirrhosis were identified from the 2009 National ...

Methods Between February 2012 and February 2013, 27 patients undergoing Total cavopulmonary connection without cardiopulmonary bypass (off-pump group) were compared with propensity score matched 27 patients undergoing Total cavopulmonary connection on cardiopulmonary bypass (on-pump group). Outcome parameters studied were inotropic score, time to extubation, intensive care unit stay, mediastina...

Eighty attempts at placing suction catheters in the left main bronchus were analysed by studying chest radiographs. When angled catheters were used via a tracheostomy tube the success rate was 75%; the rate fell to 15% when straight tubes were used through an orotracheal tube. Assessment and control of the tube length was found to be important to avoid kinking and subsequent obstruction of the ...

We examined the effects of a programme to improve adherence to British Thoracic Society pleural procedure guidelines at our institution. Following a baseline audit, we performed an intervention to enhance adherence to these guidelines. We then performed a postintervention audit. At baseline, there were different levels of guideline adherence depending on the specialty of the clinician inserting...

BACKGROUND The objective of the present study was to compare in a prospective randomized fashion two different management schemes for chest tubes after lobectomy: water seal versus alternate suction (suction overnight and water seal during the day). METHODS Ninety-four patients with air leak on the morning of the first postoperative day were randomly assigned to two groups: group 1 (water sea...