COMPLICATIONS OF CHEST TUBES INSERTED AT THE SCENE OF THE ACCIDENT

For several years it has been argued that a chest tube should be place d at the scene of an accident if thoracic trauma is suspected. However , during emergency treatment in hospital it has been observed that a h igh number of such tubes have been placed incorrectly. To validate thi s impression, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the clinical co urse of 33 trauma victims who had had chest tubes placed al the scene of accident. It was found that 39.4% of the chest tubes were placed co mpletely incorrectly and 21.2% required some correction; 39.4% were pl aced correctly. In two cases (6.1%) life-threatening complications dev eloped because of the chest tube, necessitating a thoracotomy in 1 pat ient and repeated pericardial punction in the other. Based on the resu lts of our study we believe that a more critical attitude should be ad opted to the placement of chest tubes at the scene of the accident.