A 24 year old woman presents to ED with a 12 hour history of shortness of breath and left sided pleuritic chest pain. She has no significant past medical history and is on no regular medications. Her vital signs are normal.
A 47 year old man falls 4m onto a wall, hitting his left chest wall. He is complaining of chest pain and you wonder whether there is a pneumothorax. Describe and interpret these scans
Spontaneous – primary (no disease) and secondary (underlying lung disease)
Traumatic - non-iatrogenic and iatrogenic (barotrauma and procedure related)
In the presence of a pneumothorax the visceral and parietal pleural surfaces are separated. The point at which these two surfaces meet is known as the lung point
A pneumothorax, an abnormal collection of gas in the pleural space, separating the parietal pleura of the chest wall from the visceral pleura of the lung.