Pneumothorax
Description, Diagnosis, Therapy.
Pneumothorax causes
- represents the presence of air in the pleural cavity. The air penetrates the pleura either from the bronchi or from the chest wall.
Several pneumothorax types are known:
- Spontaneous pneumothorax is the common form, most commonly caused by pulmonary tuberculosis, air cysts, pneumoconiosis, emphysema.
- Traumatic pneumothorax occurs in thoracic trauma or costal fractures.
- The therapeutic pneumothorax consists of introducing air into the pleura for therapeutic purposes.
The onset is usually brutal, even dramatic, on the occasion of an effort, violent or no apparent cough. It is characterised by atrocious soreness, localised submamelonar and irradiating in the shoulder and abdomen, followed immediately by progressive, intense sips, intense and dry, tortuous cough.
There are signs of shock or asphyxia, the pale face then cyanosis, anxiety.
The physical examination shows the enlargement of the hemodialysis, the widening of the intercostal spaces, aborted voice vibrations, hypersensitivity and silence to listening (a severe complication). The acute pulmonary cord, through the intense and violent obstacle imposed on the right heart, is a severe complication.
A particular clinical form is a suffocating pneumothorax that occurs when the pleuropulmonary perforation allows air to enter into the pleura, but not to exhale. If it does not intervene promptly and vigorously, the patient dies by asphyxia.
The diagnosis
It is based on the brutal appearance of dyspnea, the violent and atrocious chest pain, the severe asphyxia phenomena, the abolition of the vocal vibrations.
Therapy
Pneumothorax treatment consists of relieving pain with analgesics, relieving cough with specific medications, and treating shock when it occurs, resting in bed and voice resting. When the asphyxia phenomena is serious, decompressive exudation is used.
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