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?
Journal article
American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
30/03/2022
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.