Chest Trauma

Topics

  • The assessment and evaluation of Chest Trauma
  • Practical techniques in the management of Chest Trauma

 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

  1. Identify and treat immediate life threats.
  2. Understand the advantages and limitations of different imaging modalities.
  3. Understand the indications for thoracostomies and thoracotomies in the Emergency Department.
  4. Develop skills in the insertion of chest drains and performing emergency thoracotomies

 

Pre-reading

Work through the following chest trauma case

http://lifeinthefastlane.com/trauma-tribulation-017/

We will be looking at 3 different approaches for performing a thoracostomy

 

Needle

 

Finger

 

Tube

 

Another discussion from Cliff Reids site ‘http://resus.me/’, on needle decompression for Tension Pneumos-

http://resus.me/needle-decompression-its-still-not-going-to-work/

 

What size chest drain do we need?

Hmm?...Well?

Should we really be sticking drain pipes through peoples ribs?

http://www.edtcc.com/blog/2012/2/12/does-size-matter-chest-tubes-trauma.html

 

Here are some other thought provoking posts from Cliff Reid on the topics of thoracotomy and traumatic cardiac arrest: reminding us it’s important not to be the nihilist -

http://resus.me/another-argument-for-ed-thoracotomy/

http://resus.me/blunt-traumatic-arrest-in-kids/

 

Now onto the Lug Fodder...something to listen to on the way to work.

Pick a couple for this week that interest you

(Basically Does what it says on the tin)

http://blog.ercast.org/chest-trauma-with-kenji-inaba/

http://emcrit.org/practicalevidence/blunt-cardiac-injuries/

http://emcrit.org/podcasts/needle-finger-thoracostomy/

http://blog.ercast.org/how-to-put-in-a-chest-tube/

http://emcrit.org/podcasts/procedure-of-thoracotomy/

and from Emergency Medicine Cases….That stuff what all know now...

“In this episode we discuss predicting the sick trauma patient, videolaryngoscopy vs traditional laryngoscopy, Damage Control Resuscitation, Occult Hemothorax, Blunt Thoracic Aorta and Cardiac Injury, Sternal Fractures, Tranexamic Acid, Communication in the trauma bay and much more……”

http://emergencymedicinecases.com/episode-39-update-trauma-literature/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EMCases+%28Emergency+Medicine+Cases%29

 

...Lots of stuff here...once again...its a case of finding stuff that suits your style of learning and your level of experience. See you Tuesday.