Tag Archives: chest tube

Thorax, Tips

When To Remove a Chest Tube

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Chest tubes are needed occasionally to help manage chest injuries. How do you decide when they are ready for removal?

Unfortunately, the literature is not very helpful in answering this question. To come up with a uniform way of pulling them, our group looked at any existing literature and then filled in the blanks, negotiating criteria that we could all live with. We came up with the following.

Removal criteria:

  • No (or a minimal, stable) residual pneumothorax
  • No air leak
  • Less than 150cc drainage over the past 3 shifts. We do not use daily numbers, as it may delay the removal sequence. We have moved away from the “only pull tubes on the day shift” mentality. Once the criteria are met, we begin the removal sequence, even in the evening or at night.

Removal sequence:

  • Has the patient ever had an air leak? If so, they are placed on water seal for 6 hours and a followup AP or PA view chest x-ray is obtained. If no pneumothorax is seen, proceed to the next step.
  • Pull the tube. Click here to see a video demonstrating the proper technique.
  • Obtain a followup AP or PA view chest x-ray in 6 hours.
  • If no recurrent pneumothorax, send the patient home! (if appropriate)

Click here to download the full printed protocol.

General

How To Predict the Need for Chest Tube in Occult Pneumothorax

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Occult pneumothorax occurs somewhere between 2% and 12% in all blunt trauma patients. Many of these pneumothoraces never progress and thus never need treatment. Is there a way that we can identify ones that are likely to get worse?

A retrospective study of 283 blunt trauma patients with occult pneumothorax was presented at the EAST Annual Scientific Assembly last January. A total of 98 of these patients underwent chest tube insertion within 7 days, and 185 patients were successfully observed.

The authors noted an inverse relationship between age and successful conservative management. Patients with more serious injuries failed expectant management more frequently. Finally, patients with more rib fractures also tended to fail.

The authors estimated the risk of failure of expectant management based on these critieria and found:

  • Age > 35 – 36%
  • ISS > 24 – 20%
  • Rib fractures >= 4 – 53%

The risk with having none of these was 10%, and the risk with all was 75%! 

The time interval for placement was also interesting. 80% of the failures requiring a chest tube occurred within 24 hours, with most occurring in the first 2 hours. The authors also found that 40% of patients who were placed on a ventilator failed.

Obviously, this is a small retrospective study and the exact criteria for placing a chest tube were not specified. Nevertheless, it provides a simple tool that allows us to keep an eye on a subset of patients who are likely to fail observation of occult pneumothorax.

Reference: Factors Predicting Failed Observation of Occult Pneumothoraces in Blunt Trauma. Selander, Med Univ of South Carolina. EAST 2010 Annual Scientific Assembly.

General

Chest Tubes and Autotransfusion

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Chest trauma is common in trauma patients. Chest tubes are required with some regularity for the management of hemothorax and/or pneumothorax. Occasionally, the amount of blood in the chest is substantial, and when the tube goes in we wish that we were able to transfuse that blood.

Well, you can! Most collection systems have optional autotransfusion canisters that connect to the chest tube inline with the collection system. The canisters are used to collect shed blood and can then be hung like a bag of blood from the blood bank.

A few key points about using autotransfusion canisters:

  • I recommend you consider it for any chest tube being inserted for trauma. They will almost always have some blood in their chest.
  • If you want to limit use further due to the expense, just add it for trauma activation patients.
  • Always add it to the chest tube collection system before the chest tube goes in. Most of the blood will be lost if the chest tube is hooked to the collection system first.
  • No need to anticoagulate the blood. Most systems can be used to reinfuse shed blood up to 6 hours after collection without heparin or other products.
  • Be sure to use an inline blood filter. There will be some debris and clumps that must be removed.
  • Don’t use the blood if it is likely to be contaminated. This most often occurs with penetrating trauma, where a stab or gunshot could injure stomach or colon and violate the diaphragm.
  • Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your brand of collection system.

Here’s a picture of an autotransfuser that attaches to a Pleur-Evac brand system.

Autotransfuser set