Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

You are managing a patient with a spontaneous pneumothorax and a chest drain in situ, with evidence of ongoing air leak on the fifth day post insertion. You pause to consider this case of persistent air leak: is this chest drain effectively managing the air escaping through the defect in the patients visceral pleural or is it in fact exacerbating an air leak that would have settled more quickly without intervention?

Original publication

DOI

10.1164/rccm.202109-2149pp

Type

Journal article

Journal

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Publication Date

30/03/2022

Addresses

University of Bristol Academic Respiratory Unit, 572851, Academic Respiratory Unit, Westbury on Trym, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; steven.walker@nbt.nhs.uk.