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Tube thoracostomy.

Every primary care physician should be familiar with three methods of draining fluid or air from the pleural cavity. These methods are: (1) the insertion of a needle or Intracath catheter into the pleural space; (2) a tube thoracostomy using a Trocar catheter; and (3) a tube thoracostomy using a large intercostal tube. Complete anesthesia can be obtained with lidocaine, remembering that the intercostal nerve runs on the undersurface of the rib above. The Intracath catheter for removal of air is inserted in the second interspace anteriorally. The tube thoracostomy, using the Trocar catheter, is best done through the fourth interspace in the anterior axillary line but can be done wherever the exploratory needle shows the major fluid and air collection to be. The tube thoracostomy, using a large intercostal tube, is best done through the fourth intercostal space at the anterior axillary line. The intercostal catheter or tube should be fixed to the chest wall with sutures and then led to an underwater seal for collection of the contents of the pleural cavity.

Anesthesia, Local

Empyema thoracis in patients undergoing emergent closed tube thoracostomy for thoracic trauma.

The vast majority of thoracic trauma victims require only observation or tube thoracostomy for definitive treatment of their thoracic injury. Although tube thoracostomy is generally considered a limited intervention, 2 to 25 percent of patients who undergo this procedure develop infectious complications. To determine the incidence and risk factors for the development of empyema thoracis after tube thoracostomy, a retrospective study was undertaken. We found that the development of empyema thoracis was increased in patients whose pleural space was incompletely drained and whose thoracic catheters were in place for a prolonged period.

Adolescent

Prophylactic antibiotics for the prevention of infectious complications including empyema following tube thoracostomy for trauma: results of meta-analysis.

Since 1977, six clinical trials have been performed on the subject of routine antibiotic prophylaxis in patients requiring tube thoracostomy for trauma. No definitive conclusions have been reached regarding the efficacy of antibiotic use in this setting. The results of these clinical trials were pooled to generate an unbiased estimate of the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis for tube thoracostomy using the technique of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a statistical method for synthesizing results from separate but similar experiments, grouping them, and comparing each to the null hypothesis. Meta-analysis allows synthesis of all of the available data on antibiotic prophylaxis for tube thoracostomy to resolve the controversy surrounding this issue generated by different but similar clinical studies with conflicting results. Despite different conclusions of value when taken individually, the combined analysis does not support the null hypothesis (no effect of antibiotics). The statistical method is highly significant despite different mechanisms of injury, pathologic findings, and antibiotics employed.

Anti-Bacterial Agents

Bronchopleural fistula. A novel type of window thoracostomy.

Bronchopleural fistula usually associated with chronic empyema after lung operations continues to occur in modern surgical practice. Successful treatment depends to a large extent on adequate dependent drainage of the empyema space. Tube thoracostomy, although useful initially, is unacceptable as long-term treatment. Window thoracostomy as currently performed is effective but unnecessarily extensive. We describe a simpler procedure, triangular window thoracostomy, for use as a permanent pleurocutaneous stoma or as an interim measure before definitive surgical treatment.

Bronchial Fistula

Abdominal placement of tube thoracostomy due to lack of recognition of paralysis of hemidiaphragm.

Tube thoracostomy is an invasive procedure that carries a risk of complications. We report a patient with liver cirrhosis, ascites and large left-sided pleural effusion, in whom a trocar type chest tube was inserted at the seventh left intercostal space in the midaxillary line. Chest roentgenogram revealed that the drainage tube was placed into the abdominal cavity because of a misrecognized elevation of the left hemidiaphragm. This case demonstrates that the placement of a tube thoracostomy requires caution in the identification of possible abnormalities which can lead to dangerous complications.

Abdomen

Another complication of thoracostomy--perforation of the right atrium.

Tube thoracostomy is an invasive procedure that is frequently life-saving but carries a risk of complications. We describe herein a complication not documented before-laceration of the right atrium. This occurred in a severely kyphoscoliotic patient with a markedly narrowed chest and led to his demise. This case attests to the extreme caution warranted when using trocar-type thoracostomy in patients with thoracic deformities.

Aged

Eloesser window thoracostomy for treatment of empyema: radiographic appearance.

The modified Eloesser procedure or open-window thoracostomy is a surgical treatment for chronic pleural empyema in which a relatively permanent drainage opening is created in the chest wall. The chest radiographs and CT scans of 13 patients who underwent a modified Eloesser window procedure were studied. On chest films, the Eloesser window characteristically appeared en face as an elliptical or crescent-shaped radiolucency with sharp superior and ill-defined inferior margins. It appeared in profile as a downward-sloping chest-wall defect with round superior and straight inferior margins. The first radiographs made after surgery often showed potentially confusing densities caused by the iodinated gauze used to pack the drained empyema cavity. On sequential chest films, the defect in the chest wall was always detectable, while the pleural cavity diminished in size and usually disappeared within 6 months. This analysis shows that the postoperative chest radiographs and CT scans in patients having the Eloesser window thoracostomy have features that are characteristic of the procedure.

Aged

Treatment of malignant pleural effusion: a method using tube thoracostomy and talc.

Our experience with a simple bedside method for controlling recurrent symptomatic malignant pleural effusion is presented. The method consists of intercostal tube thoracostomy, instillation of a suspension of talc, and waterseal suction drainage. Based on our experience, we believe certain criteria should be met before undertaking talc pleurodesis. In properly selected patients the results with tube thoracostomy and talc pleurodesis have been uniformly good in preventing fluid recurrence and return of disabling symptoms. The technique and results are discussed.

Adolescent

Total unilateral lung gangrene in Hodgkin's disease: treatment by thoracostomy.

Total gangrene of the left lung developed in a 30-year-old male patient with a pulmonary recurrence of Hodgkin's disease after mediastinal irradiation and chemotherapy. Clinically, tension pyopneumothorax and severe septic shock were present. Surgical repair was done by thoracostomy, resecting three ribs. A 2 x 0.5-cm hole in the necrotic wall of the left main bronchus was covered with an intercostal muscle bundle. The necrotic pleural surfaces were treated openly by daily change of dressings. The patient recovered satisfactorily and underwent four further courses of chemotherapy without any complications.

Adult

Open-window thoracostomy in pleural empyema.

Open-window thoracostomy (OWT) was performed in 21 cases of empyema. The indications were postpneumonectomy empyema with (n = 6) or without (n = 1) fistula, early recurrent empyema after decortication (n = 6), chronical empyema in ill elderly patients with (n = 5) or without fistula (n = 2), and total unilateral lung gangrene with a large fistula of the main bronchus after radiotherapy and chemotherapy (n = 1). All cases presented with severe sepsis, eight of them with acute septic shock, and six with signs of multiorgan failure. Three to five ribs were resected, the muscles and skin were sutured to the ribs confining the window located at the lowest point of the empyema cavity, while the intercostal muscles of the resected ribs were used to close fistulae. The cavity was packed with dressings every day. In all cases, the sepsis subsided immediately after OWT. With the exception of one patient with postpneumonectomy empyema, who died of contralateral pneumonia on day 36, no surgery-related complications were seen. Four further patients died of unrelated causes 2, 4, 5, and 7 months, respectively, after OWT. In one of them, the OWT had been closed. Up to this time, obliteration and closure of the cavity has been carried out in 7 cases by using thoracoplasty (n = 2) or predicted muscle flaps (n = 5) either in the early course or after a delay of 11 to 23 months, with fair functional and cosmetic results. In one further case, operative closure has been planned. In seven of the eight remaining patients, four of whom declined further operations, the cavities closed spontaneously, despite their initial size after intervals of between 11 and 21 months.

Adult

Successful CPR in a severely hypothermic patient using continuous thoracostomy lavage.

Severe hypothermia with cardiopulmonary arrest often requires prolonged resuscitation while rewarming procedures are implemented. A 63-year-old male in cardiopulmonary arrest with a core body temperature of 23.7 C was resuscitated successfully after core rewarming by means of a two-chest-tube continuous thoracostomy lavage procedure. This lavage procedure resulted in effective and rapid rewarming after other conventional rewarming methods had failed.

Body Temperature

Complications following blunt and penetrating injuries in 216 victims of chest trauma requiring tube thoracostomy.

Tube thoracostomy (TT) is required in the treatment of many blunt and penetrating injuries of the chest. In addition to complications from the injuries, TT may contribute to morbidity by introducing microorganisms into the pleural space or by incomplete lung expansion and evacuation of pleural blood. We have attempted to assess the impact of TT following penetrating and blunt thoracic trauma by examining a consecutive series of 216 patients seen at two urban trauma centers with such injuries who required TT over a 30-month period. Ninety-four patients suffered blunt chest trauma; 122 patients were victims of penetrating wounds. Patients with blunt injuries had longer ventilator requirements (12.6 +/- 14 days vs. 3.7 +/- 7.1 days, p = 0.003), longer intensive care stays (12.2 +/- 12.5 days vs. 4.1 +/- 7.5 days, p = 0.001), and longer periods of TT, (6.5 +/- 4.9 days vs. 5.2 +/- 4.5 days, p = 0.018). Empyema occurred in six patients (3%). Residual hemothorax was found in 39 patients (18%), seven of whom required decortication. Recurrent pneumothorax developed in 51 patients (24%) and ten required repeat TT. Complications occurred in 78 patients (36%). Patients with blunt trauma experienced more complications (44%) than those with penetrating wounds (30%) (p = 0.04). However, only seven of 13 patients developing empyema or requiring decortication had blunt trauma. Despite longer requirements for mechanical ventilation, intensive care, and intubation, victims of blunt trauma seemed to have effective drainage of their pleural space by TT without increased risk of infectious complications.

Adolescent

Occult traumatic pneumothorax: immediate tube thoracostomy versus expectant management.

Occult pneumothorax is pneumothorax identified by computed tomography but not seen on conventional chest radiographs. Twenty-seven occult traumatic pneumothoraces in 26 patients were identified retrospectively at the authors' level I trauma center. Of these, 24 patients survived to discharge or transfer; 2 died of brain injury. Eleven patients were treated immediately with tube thoracostomy (TT) and 13 were observed with interval chest radiography. The authors' data support the conclusion that it is safe to withhold immediate TT in patients who are hemodynamically stable. Close clinical observation and interval chest radiography can identify those patients who require subsequent TT. Prospective study of larger numbers of patients is needed to confirm the safety and cost efficacy of this approach.

Adolescent

[Thoracopleuromyoplasty as definitive cure for chronic pleural empyemas, after preparation by open thoracostomy].

Between 1979 and 1986, 30 patients with chronic pleural empyema (19 with pyothorax secondary to tuberculosis and 11 with pleural empyema following pulmonary resection) underwent two-stage treatment. The first stage consisted of open thoracostomy and was followed, 2 to 7 months later, by thoracopleuromyoplasty with latissimus dorsi, serratus anterior and pectoralis major muscles either alone or in combination. There was no operative mortality in this series of 30 operated patients. Definitive obliteraion of the pleural cavity and closure of the bronchial fistulae were obtained in 26 of the 30 patients. Partial necrosis of the muscle graft in the other 4 patients required further open drainage and an additional myoplasty. The long-term functional results in the cases of post-resection empyema were compatible with the restriction created by the pulmonary resection and, in the cases of empyema with a residual lung, with the restriction of the volume and perfusion of pulmonary parenchyma.

Adolescent

Surgical diagnosis of effusive bronchopulmonary disease in Nigerians: the role of pleural biopsy at tube thoracostomy.

Seventy-two consecutive patients who had pleural biopsy through tube thoracostomy sites (TTSPB) for pleuro-pulmonary diseases associated with pleural effusion at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital between April 1982 and September 1987 were reviewed. The objective was to determine the diagnostic yield of pleural biopsy material in these patients. The patients, whose ages ranged from 9 months to 90 years, had final diagnoses of non-tuberculous pleuritis (35 patients), tuberculous pleuritis (14 patients), primary and secondary malignancies and reticulosis (23 patients). Diagnostic yield by TTSPB was 95.8% (69 patients) while clinicopathologic concurrence was 90.3% (65 patients). For patients presenting with pleural fluid collection secondary to pleuropulmonary disease, TTSPB is a reliable, safe, cost-effective and relatively simple thoracic surgical diagnostic procedure which gives a higher diagnostic yield and clinico-pathologic concurrence than percutaneous needle biopsy.

Adolescent

Pasteurella multocida empyema: successful treatment with open thoracostomy.

Pasteurella multocida appears to be an uncommon pathogen in human thoracic empyema. The morbidity and mortality associated with these infections has been significant, presumably secondary to the elderly populations they affect, many with chronic lung disease and impaired pulmonary defenses. We report a case of pasteurella empyema treated with open thoracostomy and rib resection and advocate use of such a procedure early in the treatment of patients with this infection.

Aged

Treatment of post pneumonectomy pleural empyema by open window thoracostomy.

In 13 patients an open window thoracostomy (OWT) was performed for post pneumonectomy pleural empyema. The operation, and life with an OWT cavity, were tolerated well. Early closure of an OWT is not advisable because of a high chance of recurrence of the infection and, in lung cancer patients also the risk of tumour relapse within two years after tumour surgery.

Adult

A new technique for closed thoracostomy insertion of chest tube.

A new technique for percutaneous closed thoracostomy insertion of a chest tube is now available. It appears to be a more comfortable one for the operator and the patient. With widespread use, it is expected to improve the effectiveness and reduce the morbidity and mortality rates resulting from chest tube insertions.

Catheterization