Management of simple and retained hemothorax: A practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic hemothorax poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges both acutely and chronically. A working group of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma convened to formulate a practice management guideline for traumatic hemothorax. METHODS: We formulated four questions: whether tube thoracostomy vs observation be performed, should pigtail catheter versus thoracostomy tube be placed to drain hemothorax, should thrombolytic therapy be attempted versus immediate thoracoscopic assisted drainage (VATS) in retained hemothorax (rHTX), and should early VATS (≤4 days) versus late VATS (>4 days) be performed? A systematic review was undertaken from articles identified in multiple databases. RESULTS: A total of 6391 articles were identified, 14 were selected for guideline construction. Most articles were retrospective with very low-quality evidence. We performed meta-analysis for some of the outcomes for three of the questions. CONCLUSIONS: For traumatic hemothorax we conditionally recommend pigtail catheters, in hemodynamically stable patients. In patients with rHTX, we conditionally recommend VATS rather than attempting thrombolytic therapy and recommend that it should be performed early (≤4 days).

Chest Tube Management Practices by Trauma Surgeons.

BACKGROUND: Chest tube (CT) placement is among the most common procedures performed by trauma surgeons; evidence guiding CT management is limited and tends toward thoracic surgery patients. The study goal was to identify current CT management practices among trauma providers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We designed a Web-based multiple-choice survey to assess CT management practices of trauma providers who were active, senior, or provisional members (n = 1890) of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and distributed via e-mail. Descriptive statistics were used. RESULTS: The response rate was 39% (n = 734). Ninety-one percent of respondents were attending surgeons, the remainder fellows or residents. Regarding experience, 36% of respondents had five or fewer years of practice, 54% 10 y or fewer, and 79% 20 y or fewer. Attendings were more likely than trainees to place pigtail catheters for stable patients with pneumothorax (PTX). Attendings with experience of <5 y were more likely to choose a pigtail than more experienced surgeons for elderly patients with PTX. Respondents preferred standard size CTs for hemothorax and unstable patients with PTX, and larger tubes for unstable patients with hemothorax. Most respondents (53%) perceived the quality of evidence for trauma CT management to be low and cited personal experience and training as the main factors driving their practice. CONCLUSIONS: Trauma CT management is variable and nonstandardized, depending mostly on clinician training and personal experience. Few surgeons identify their practice as evidence based. We offer compelling justification for the need for trauma CT management research to determine best practices.

Persistent air leak - review.

A persistent air leak (PAL) can be caused by either an alveolar-pleural fistula (APF) or bronchopleural fistula (BPF). Complications from PAL lead to an increase in morbidity and mortality, prolonged hospital stay, and higher resource utilization. Pulmonary physicians and thoracic surgeons are often tasked with the difficult and often times frustrating diagnosis and management of PALs. While most patients will improve with chest tube thoracostomy, many will fail requiring alternative bronchoscopic or surgical strategies. Herein, we review the bronchoscopic and surgical diagnostic and treatment options for PAL as it pertains to the field of interventional pulmonology and thoracic surgery.

Presumptive antibiotic use in tube thoracostomy for traumatic hemopneumothorax: an Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma practice management guideline.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic use in injured patients requiring tube thoracostomy (TT) to reduce the incidence of empyema and pneumonia remains a controversial practice. In 1998, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) developed and published practice management guidelines for the use of presumptive antibiotics in TT for patients who sustained a traumatic hemopneumothorax. The Practice Management Guidelines Committee of EAST has updated the 1998 guidelines to reflect current literature and practice. METHODS: A systematic literature review was performed to include prospective and retrospective studies from 1997 to 2011, excluding those studies published in the previous guideline. Case reports, letters to the editor, and review articles were excluded. Ten acute care surgeons and one statistician/epidemiologist reviewed the articles under consideration, and the EAST primer was used to grade the evidence. RESULTS: Of the 98 articles identified, seven were selected as meeting criteria for review. Two questions regarding presumptive antibiotic use in TT for traumatic hemopneumothorax were addressed: (1) Do presumptive antibiotics reduce the incidence of empyema or pneumonia? And if true, (2) What is the optimal duration of antibiotic prophylaxis? CONCLUSION: Routine presumptive antibiotic use to reduce the incidence of empyema and pneumonia in TT for traumatic hemopneumothorax is controversial; however, there is insufficient published evidence to support any recommendation either for or against this practice.

Intercostal catheter insertion: are we really doing well?

INTRODUCTION: Intercostal catheters (ICC) are the standard management of chest trauma, but are associated with complications in up to 30%. The aim of this study was to evaluate errors in technique during ICC insertion to characterize the potential benefit of improved training programmes. METHODS: Prospective audit of all ICC in trauma patients at a level 1 trauma centre for over 12 months. Exclusions were pigtail catheters and ICC inserted during thoracic surgery. Errors were identified from patient examination and chest imaging; they were defined as insertional, positional, incorrect size (<28 French) and lack of antibiotic prophylaxis. Ongoing complications unrelated to an error in technique, for example blocked tube, were not analysed. RESULTS: Fifty-seven patients received a total of 94 ICC during the study period. Patients were predominantly male (77%), mean age of 40 ± 20 years, mean injury severity score 27 ± 13, mean abbreviated injury scale chest 3.8 ± 0.72. 86% were blunt trauma and 14% penetrating chest injuries. Thirty-six errors in technique occurred in 33 ICC insertions (38%). The most common errors were absence of prophylactic antibiotics (13%), ICC too far out (9%), kinked (6%) and wrong-sized ICC (5%). Emergency had a significantly greater frequency of errors than other specialties (67%, relative risk 2.11, P= 0.002). The majority of ICC were inserted by registrars, and registrars made a greater number of errors than fellows or consultants (relative risk 2.00, P= 0.02). DISCUSSION: This study identified a large number of preventable errors for ICC insertion in trauma patients. Standardized institutional credentialing systems may be required to ensure adequate proficiency of trainees performing this procedure.

Manejo protocolizado de la toracostomía mínima en pacientes traumatizados, hospital escuela Antonio Lenin Fonseca, junio 2003- marzo 2005 / Manage protocolized of the minimum toracostomía in traumatized patients, hospital school Antonio Lenin Fonseca, June 2003 - March 2005

El traumatismo de tórax constituye una de las causas más comunes de consulta en el Servicio de Cirugía General del HEALF, siendo la toracostomía la principal terapia en pacientes con hemoneumotórax traumático. Las pautas para su manejo aún varían ampliamente en cuanto a utilización de antibióticos, radiografías y criterios de retiro del tubo de tórax. En dicho cewntro, en el período junio 2003 a marzo 2005 se estandarizó un protocolo de manejo de la toracostomía tubo de tórax conectado a succión continua y luego a sello de agua, uso de antibióticos profilácticos, realización de menos radiografías de control y reducción de la estancia hospitalaria, comparándolo con los pacientes tratados de forma convencional (sello de agus únicamente). La diferencia entre grupos fue evaluada con las pruebas de Chi Cuadrado y Mann Withney "U" test. Fueron 25 pacientes en el grupo experimental y 30 pacientes en el grupo de control. En el primer grupo la estancia hospitalaria logró reducirse a dos días o menos y a dos radiografías de control. En ambos se observó igual número de complicaciones; perpo con un importante ahorro ecnómico de aproximadamente 45, 000 córdobas en el grupo experimental

Medical and surgical treatment of parapneumonic effusions : an evidence-based guideline.

OBJECTIVE: A panel was convened by the Health and Science Policy Committee of the American College of Chest Physicians to develop a clinical practice guideline on the medical and surgical treatment of parapneumonic effusions (PPE) using evidence-based methods. OPTIONS AND OUTCOMES CONSIDERED: Based on consensus of clinical opinion, the expert panel developed an annotated table for evaluating the risk for poor outcome in patients with PPE. Estimates of the risk for poor outcome were based on the clinical judgment that, without adequate drainage of the pleural space, the patient with PPE would be likely to have any or all of the following: prolonged hospitalization, prolonged evidence of systemic toxicity, increased morbidity from any drainage procedure, increased risk for residual ventilatory impairment, increased risk for local spread of the inflammatory reaction, and increased mortality. Three variables, pleural space anatomy, pleural fluid bacteriology, and pleural fluid chemistry, were used in this annotated table to categorize patients into four separate risk levels for poor outcome: categories 1 (very low risk), 2 (low risk), 3 (moderate risk), and 4 (high risk). The panel's consensus opinion supported drainage for patients with moderate (category 3) or high (category 4) risk for a poor outcome, but not for patients with very low (category 1) or low (category 2) risk for a poor outcome. The medical literature was reviewed to evaluate the effectiveness of medical and surgical management approaches for patients with PPE at moderate or high risk for poor outcome. The panel grouped PPE management approaches into six categories: no drainage performed, therapeutic thoracentesis, tube thoracostomy, fibrinolytics, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), and surgery (including thoracotoiny with or without decortication and rib resection). The fibrinolytic approach required tube thoracostomy for administration of drug, and VATS included post-procedure tube thoracostomy. Surgery may have included concomitant lung resection and always included postoperative tube thoracostomy. All management approaches included appropriate treatment of the underlying pneumonia, including systemic antibiotics. Criteria for including articles in the panel review were adequate data provided for >/=20 adult patients with PPE to allow evaluation of at least one relevant outcome (death or need for a second intervention to manage the PPE); reasonable assurance provided that drainage was clinically appropriate (patients receiving drainage were either category 3 or category 4) and drainage procedure was adequately described; and original data were presented. The strength of panel recommendations on management of PPE was based on the following approach: level A, randomized, controlled trials with consistent results or individual randomized, controlled trial with narrow confidence interval (CI); level B, controlled cohort and case control series; level C, historically controlled series and case series; and level D, expert opinion without explicit critical appraisal or based on physiology, bench research, or "first principles." EVIDENCE: The literature review revealed 24 articles eligible for full review by the panel, 19 of which dealt with the primary management approach to PPE and 5 with a rescue approach after a previous approach had failed. Of the 19 involving the primary management approach to PPE, there were 3 randomized, controlled trials, 2 historically controlled series, and 14 case series. The number of patients included in the randomized controlled trials was small; methodologic weaknesses were found in the 19 articles describing the results of primary management approaches to PPE. The proportion and 95% CI of patients suffering each of the two relevant outcomes (death and need for a second intervention to manage the PPE) were calculated for the pooled data for each management approach from the 19 articles on the primary management approach. (ABST

Dehiscencia del muñón bronquial después de neumonectomías / Bronchial stump dehiscence after pneumonectomy

Entre los años 1983 y 1993 se trataron 14 pacientes con dehiscencias del muñón bronquial después de neumonectomías, divididos en dos grupos de acuerdo con el momento de aparición: dehiscencias tempranas (7 casos) y dehiscencias tardías (7 casos). Se describen posibles factores causales: técnicos en el primer grupo e infecciosos en el segundo. La conducta terapéutica, adaptada a cada caso en particular, estuvo orientada al manejo de la insuficiencia respiratoria, el control de la sepsis, el cierre del orificio fistuloso y la reparación de la cavidad residual. Se establecen normas orientadoras para el tratamiento

Guía para la práctica de toracentesis y de toracostomía cerrada (inserción de tubo de tórax) / Guidelines in thoracocentesis and closed thoracostomy (chest drainege tube insertion)

Se actualizan las técnicas de torancentesis y torascostomía cerrada, complementadas o no de toracospia, indicadas para evacuar aire, líquido o sangre de la cavidad pleural y estabrecer su etiopatogenia. Deben seguirse estrictamente para realizarlas con éxito y evitar complicaciones.

Surgical diagnosis of effusive bronchopulmonary disease in Nigerians: the role of pleural biopsy at tube thoracostomy.

Seventy-two consecutive patients who had pleural biopsy through tube thoracostomy sites (TTSPB) for pleuro-pulmonary diseases associated with pleural effusion at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital between April 1982 and September 1987 were reviewed. The objective was to determine the diagnostic yield of pleural biopsy material in these patients. The patients, whose ages ranged from 9 months to 90 years, had final diagnoses of non-tuberculous pleuritis (35 patients), tuberculous pleuritis (14 patients), primary and secondary malignancies and reticulosis (23 patients). Diagnostic yield by TTSPB was 95.8% (69 patients) while clinicopathologic concurrence was 90.3% (65 patients). For patients presenting with pleural fluid collection secondary to pleuropulmonary disease, TTSPB is a reliable, safe, cost-effective and relatively simple thoracic surgical diagnostic procedure which gives a higher diagnostic yield and clinico-pathologic concurrence than percutaneous needle biopsy.