FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 356:641-642 February 8, 2007 Number 6 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear Related Article by Thomsen, T. W.

To the Editor: Thomsen et al. (Oct. 12 issue)¹ state in their video that thoracentesis must be performed with "extreme care" in mechanically ventilated patients because of a theoretically increased risk of tension pneumothorax. They also state that chest radiographs should be routinely performed if "the patient is critically ill or receiving mechanical ventilation."

Although care is appropriate in any invasive procedure, pneumothorax is a rare complication as long as ultrasonography is used. In a series of 232 mechanically ventilated patients, 3 patients (1.3%) had pneumothorax.² None of these pneumothoraxes were under tension, although a chest tube was inserted in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.