emDocs - October 13, 2017 - By Anand Swaminathan
Originally published at CoreEM.net, dedicated to bringing Emergency Providers all things core content Emergency Medicine available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Reposted with permission.
"Take Home Points
- Always look for concomitant extra-thoracic trauma in patients with hemothorax
- Hemothoracies should be emergently drained by performing a tube thoracostomy
- Tube thoracostomies should be placed in the 4th or 5th intercostal space over the rib with care to ensure entry into the thorax and not the abdomen
- If initial drainage is > 1000-1500 mL or their is continued brisk output (> 300-500 mL in the first hour or > 200 mL every hour for the next 3 hours) consult trauma surgery for emergent OR management"