Tension pneumothorax

IMAGES IN CARDIOTHORACIC TRAUMA

Year : 2018  |  Volume : 3  |  Issue : 1  |  Page : 27

The symptomless tension pneumothorax

Moheb A Rashid
Department of Surgery, Lillehammer Hospital, Lillehammer, Norway; Scandinavian Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Gothenburg, Sweden

Date of Web Publication

20-Dec-2018

Correspondence Address:
Moheb A Rashid
Department of Surgery, Lillehammer Hospital, Lillehammer; Scandinavian Cardiovascular Surgery Center, Gothenburg 

Figure 1: This is a chest X-ray of a patient with symptomless right-sided tension pneumothorax, where the upper mediastinum (trachea) and lower mediastinum (heart) are shifted to the left side as shown in Figure 1. This phenomenon is unique; however, it does exist as in this patient, who came in a well-planned time to be checked up, 1 week after removal of a chest tube due to a right-sided pneumothorax. The patient was examined by the author after having the chest X-ray, and the patient denied any significant symptoms (no pain, no dyspnea, and normal respiration rate with stable vital signs). However, on examination, there was a slight tracheal shift to the left side which in turn is considered as a late sign in the course of tension pneumothorax development. Click here to view