Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Chest Tube #3

Last night I performed my third thoracostomy. My first two were in a more controlled environment than occurred in the minutes after an overhead page implored all available medical personnel to go to the triage area.

A tube thoracostomy is when a large plastic tube (about a third the diameter of a garden hose) is inserted into the chest to drain blood or air. One indication for the procedure is a penetrating trauma to the chest with impaired vital signs.

This occurred at the end of my shift, so all I know about how the patient did I read in the paper.