Yesterday I described a protocol for deciding when to remove a chest tube in adults. Today, I’ll go over a variant of this algorithm for children. In general, it’s very similar. The major change is in the volume criterion. In adults, we decided upon an (arbitrary) value of 150cc per three shifts. We chose a time interval of 3 shifts vs 1 day to speed up the process.
Suppose you use the 1 day rule for looking at chest tube output. Typically, this would be evaluated in the morning, and the process of pulling the tube or applying water seal, followed by delayed xrays, could lead to a very late discharge. If the output is checked every shift and the most recent three are summed, the patient could meet criteria later in the day and have the tube pulled in the evening. This would allow for an earlier discharge the following day, shaving 12 hours or more off of the hospital stay. This may not make much of a difference to the hospital (although for busy ones it does), but it’s huge for patient comfort and satisfaction.
Click this image or the link below for a full-size version.
Note that the output criterion has been changed to 2cc/kg over three shifts. This adjusts for the varying sizes of the children that we treat. Otherwise things are basically the same.
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