Abstract
There are not few opportunities to insert the chest tube for hemopneumothorax at our daily procedure. The probables of hemopneumothorax include blunt thoracic trauma, spontaneous hemopneumothorax, and pleuritis. Anyway we are necessary to drip infusion, inhale oxygen, and insert a chest tube for hemopnemot-horax.
The aims of the drainage are: to improve pulmonary circulation by reducing intrapulmonary pressure; to improve hypoxia by increasing pulmonary compliance and decreasing pulmonary shunt; and to make monitering system for air leak and intrathoracic bleeding. On the other hand, chest tube drainage has compli-cations such as hemorrhage due to injuries of posterior intercostal and internal thoracic artery, and pulmonary edema. We have recently operated on two patients with spontaneous hemopneumothorax who went into shock immediately after chest tube drainage. This paper presents pithalls of the drainage for spontaneous he-mopneumothorax, together with a review of the literature.
