Spotlight on Research

Tension pneumothoraces (TP) are life-threatening injuries that may be treated by needle thoracocentesis (NT). The technique is not without complications, hence this research investigating the accuracy of NT placement by prehospital clinicians. This review, based in the United States, assessed the accuracy of insertion of catheters including the location of the insertion site, accuracy of landmark identification, and complication rates of NT in trauma patients. The locations of insertion were measured and documented using computerised tomography (CT) scans.

The research was a single-centre study of 84 patients that were transported to a level-2 trauma centre over 2 years, all of whom appeared to have TP. The symptoms were defined by the local medical agency and each patient had to have survived their initial emergency department assessment/treatment and made it through the CT scan alive as per the normal trauma protocol. The study protocol required that the inserted catheters remained in place and were not dislodged. Each patient's insertion location was naturally described in the CT report and noted as inside the pleural cavity versus insertion outside the pleural cavity. The study included other data points such as gender, mechanism of injury, chest tube placement and body mass index (BMI).