Ultrasound Guidance in Detection of Pneumothorax and Thoracentesis Performance

Abstract

Management of pneumothorax and its early diagnosis are important clinical skills for physicians in emergency departments and respiratory medicine. The recent investigations provided some evidence about the use of ultrasonography in diagnosis of pneumothorax in critical care units. Currently ultrasonography is on hand in most therapeutic and diagnostic departments for both detection and disease management. Advantages of ultrasonography are that it’s portable and can be applied in patient’s bedside. In this article we reviewed the efficacy of ultrasonography ii diagnosis of pneumothorax and well performance in Thoracentesis. We concluded that diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography was equal and some times more than chest radiography in detection of pneumothorax. Ultrasonography will increase patient safety and the amount of fluid removed during thoracentesis and can reduce the risk of pneumothorax, hospitalization costs and length of stay.