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Chest Tubes
1- What are chest tubes used for?
Chest tubes are long, semi-stiff, clear plastic tubes that are inserted into the
chest, so that they can drain collections of fluids or air from the space
between the pleura. If the lung has been compressed because of this
collection, the lung can then re-expand.
Some reasons for inserting a chest tube:

Pneumothorax: a collection
of air in the pleural space.
These can happen
spontaneously: I saw a young
man walk into the ER once,
who just didnt feel right he had a nearly completely
collapsed right lung. Pneumos
can occur after central line
insertion, after chest surgery,
after trauma to the chest, or
after a traumatic airway intubation. Important to remember: if the air
continues to collect in the chest, the pressure in that collection can rise,
and push the whole mediastinum over to the other side - this is called a
tension pneumothorax, and is definitely life-threatening. Call the
surgeon.
http://www.henryfordhealth.org/18652.cfm

Hemothorax: a collection of blood in the pleural space, maybe from

surgery, maybe from a traumatic injury.
This is actually a hemo-pneumo-thorax: blood and air

http://www.henryfordhealth.org/18145.cfm

Heres a really nice picture from the University of Iowas Virtual Hospital,
used with permission. See the shifted mediastinum? the tracheas shoved
over to the right.

Pus can collect in the pleural space - empyema.

Fluid, usually serous, maybe from CHF, sometimes from a tumor
process, will collect between the pleura - pleural effusion.

Another nice picture from Iowa big

effusion there on the right! (No, Ralph
the patients right!)

2- Where exactly is a chest tube placed?

The chest tube is inserted by a surgeon, usually thoracic, but sometimes
someone from the general surgical service. The entry point is the fourth or
fifth intercostal space, on the mid-axillary line, which is pretty close to the
point at which you level a line transducer. The tube is inserted towards the
collection: sometimes up and in front, or up and in back, or wherever the
collection lies.
3- How does the three-chamber system work?

We use a device called a pleurevac, a

large plastic box with what seems like
fourteen separate compartments in it actually the ideas behind it are not hard to
grasp. The box actually imitates an old
system that was invented to drain chest
tubes, which used three chambers - they
were actually glass bottles held by a metal rack - in series. (I remember those
glass setups - I must be getting really old.)

http://www.proasepsis.com/productos.html

http://home.ewha.ac.kr/~chestsg/dong/poster/99/2-08.jpg
Wow look what you can find if you hunt around on the webthe patients
looking very relaxed! Chest tube placement in tanning booth
So first, take a look at the singlebottle setup there on the left of the
picture.. what I was taught to call
an air trap, or air leak
chamber. The idea here is pretty
simple: suppose you had a chest
tube freshly inserted into your
patient, with the end hanging
loose. The patient could suck air
directly into her chest through the
tube if that distal end wasnt
controlled somehow - maybe with
a one-way flapper on the end? So
that the air the patient pushed out
of her chest would go out, but
none would get sucked back in?
How about putting the distal end
of the tube into a cup of water? Or
a bottle of water? That would

work as a one-way valve, unless the patient were able to breathe in hard
enough to suck up the water - how about putting the bottle of water at the
end of a long tube, far away from the patient - so she couldnt suck the water
back? Thats how the air trap works. The trap is filled with water at some
distance from the patient - look at how long the drainage tube is on a
pleurevac sometime - and only lets air out, not back in. Bubbles moving
through the trap means that the patient has an air leak, and that the tube is
draining air properly (thats what its supposed to mean - more on
troubleshooting below.)
This isnt quite the one we use, but its close enough to point arrows at:
Air coming out of the patient will bubble out here, which is the defninition
of an air leak. No bubbles, no leak. First bottle.
Heres where the drainage comes out. Second bottle.
Heres where the water column goes. Third bottle.
http://www.auh.dk/akh/afd/afd-n/intensiv/procedurer/bilag/bil11.htm
So a single-chamber setup would work if the only thing comng out of the
patients chest was air what if theres fluid in there that needs draining,
too? Time for a second bottle.
In the multi-bottle setups above, the second chamber is the air trap, while the
first collects fluid drained from the patient: blood, or serous fluid from the
pleural space. You may be surprised at how rapidly these can fill up in
certain situations - for example, tumor-related effusions can drain more that
a liter - or two liters in a day. Youll have to change the pleurevac when its
full. This is the only time that we routinely clamp a chest tube - remove
the clamp after the boxes are switched. Dont forget!
Hey heres an idea: what about adding suction to this arrangement? It only
makes sense that it would help drain the patients chest if you could gently
suck air and fluid out of her pleural space, right? But if you hook up suction
from the wall, even with a regulator, you might pull too hardnow you
need the third bottle. To deliver very precise suction, we use the weight of a

measured column of water, which shouldnt change as long is its topped up

now and then.
The regulated wall suction is applied to a partly-water-filled plastic column
in the pleurevac box, above the water level - and the weight of the water
acts as a suction limiter. No matter how hard the wall suction pulls, the
actual suction delivered to the patient is only as hard as the amount required
to pull air out past that fixed weight of water. Any suction above that just
pulls in air from outside the box, through a vent. The incoming air bubbles
through the column, which is what makes all the noise you hear when the
box is hooked up to the wall suction. All you need to apply is enough to
make it bubble more than that just makes noise, and makes the water
evaporate.
Oh yes: fill a pleuevac up with sterile water instead of normal saline. As
saline evaporates, it will actually (a surgeon told me once), leave salt crud on
the sides of the box chambers
4- Can suction be bad for the patient?
Obviously, you need to control the amount of suction applied to the patient.
Make sure you have your pleurevac set up correctly. The surgeon who
inserts the tube should order a specific water level in the control column we usually fill it to 20 cm, but sometimes they order less.
5- What is the difference between transudate and exudate, and why do
we care?
Transudates and exudates are descriptive names for types of fluids that
can collect in the pleural space. Transudates you might think of as thinner
- they often result from CHF, and you might think of them as more watery,
being sweated into the pleural space when a patient is wet. Exudates
might be thought of as thicker - they contain more protein, and usually
result from some kind of inflammatory process. They can also be a result of
tumor processes - patients with lung Ca or pleural mets often show up with
exudative fluid collections. You tell the difference by sending thoracentesis
specs to the lab.

6- What is an effusion?
Transudates and exudates are types of effusions - the idea being that the
collections of fluid are sweated from the lung. Recurrent effusions can be
a real problem for a patient who is dealing with a long-term illness, but as
long as the patient has a reasonable hope for living a while yet, there is good
reason to treat the effusion, either with treatment for underlying CHF, or for
an underlying tumor process, or for whatever else is causing the problem.
7- How are effusions treated?
In the short term, with a chest-tube. Some effusions related to CHF can be
treated with diuresis - the idea is that decreasing the amount of the water
component in the blood will cause the effusion to be re-absorbed. If the
effusion is large enough to produce respiratory distress, or tension
symptoms, you obviously would think more about inserting a chest tube.
8- When should a chest tube for effusions be removed?
When its safe to to do so. This sounds stupid until you stop and think
about the underlying reason why the tube was inserted in the first place. Is
the effusion just going to re-collect after the original one is drained? Maybe
something needs to be done to stop the effusion from recurring, like
pleurodesis.
9- What is pleurodesis?
Pleurodesis is a technique of instilling some substance or other into the
pleural space through the chest tube, which is then supposed to weld the
pleura together by scarring them, preventing the re-collection of fluid
between them. This doesnt sound like it would be a very pleasant idea, but
it works pretty well for some situations. I remember the old days, when the
scarring agents used to cause a lot of pain - Im sure that they werent
chosen to be painful, but they were - lets forget about those Nowadays
they use sterile talcum powder, which comes up from the pharmacy in large
sterile syringes and looks strange - apparently it works very well.

10- How are malignant effusions treated?

Talcum powder is instilled into the pleural space, right through the chest
tube. Then the patient gets rolled around into different positions every
whichy-way so that the scarifying agent gets distributed everywhere.
11- What is streptokinase used for when it is given through a chest tube?
Sometimes youll see narrow-gauge chest tubes inserted instead of the large
clear ones, and because theyre narrow, they get can plugged up with fibrin,
which stops the drainage. The tube in this case is usually rigged with a
stopcock between the end of the tube and the connector to the pleurevac the team will instill a dose of streptokinase through the stopcock and into the
patient through the chest tube, let it sit for half an hour, and then turn the
stopcock back to drain. The dose I see given is 250,000 units.
Strepto is also injected if the patient has a loculated effusion, which means
that its managed to become surrounded by a fibrin membrane. The drug
breaks up the membrane and lets the effusion get to the tube for drainage.
12- What is empyema?
This is a collection of pus in the pleural space, or in a big abscess space in
the lung tissue itself.
Feh! Pus can collect in large enough
quantities to compress the lung, and
certainly will act as a septic focus
until its drained. Empyema can result
from chest trauma - say, a gunshot or
knife wound - or necrotizing
pneumonia, or any other process that
puts bacteria into the chest.

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And you were wondering why your patient was on pressors? Actually,
thats a good question: new ICU nurses, why might this situation make your
patient need pressors? Look one paragraph up for the hint.

http://www.koreacna.or.kr/cuecom/diseasecare/respiratory/07.respirationempyema.htm
13- What exactly is an air leak?
The idea of using chest tubes to remove air from the pleural cavity means
that there has to be some way to tell that air is actually coming out. The
smaller bubble chamber in the pleurevac shows an air leak very simply - if
there are bubbles coming through it, then air is coming down the tube and
being evacuated. Its important to remember that this does not mean
automatically that air is coming out of the chest. If theres a leak in the
tubing, or if a chest tube suction port (the openings along the lumen of the
tube inside the chest that draw in the air and fluid for drainage) is outside of
the chest wall, then air will be sucked in there - instead of being pulled out
of the chest. So bubbles are a good sign, but you have to check everything
else too.
14- How can you tell if the chest tube port is out of the chest?
Sometimes youll suddenly hear a new sound in your room. Hunting around,
you may find that your patients chest tube has inadvertently taken a yank and its whistling at the insertion site. A port has come outside the skin, and
its continuously sucking in air from the atmosphere around it. You can put
your stethoscope on the dressing over the site if youre suspicious, and
youll hear it clearly there.
Take a look at this picture one of these chest tubes isnt quite right. See the
radio-opaque lines going along the tubes? Look at the one on the patients
left. See the break in the line? Thats the drainage opening. Nicely inside the
chest? So what about the one on the other side?

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15- How can this be fixed?

If you take the site dressing down, you can wrap the port with sterile
vaseline gauze and apply an occlusive dressing, but usually this situation
means that the tube will need to be replaced. Youll also need a stat x-ray air may be dangerously re-accumulating in the chest!

16- Are air leaks good or bad?

It depends on the situation. (Everything always depends on the situation!) If
a patient has a chest tube put in for a pneumothorax, then at least initially an
air leak is a very good thing - because you certainly want that air out of
there. If you dont see bubbles coming out through the air leak chamber after
a tube is placed for a pneumo - then you may have a non-functioning chest
tube on your hands; it might not be in the right place. Get a look with the
team at the followup x-ray immediately to see if the pneumo has shrunk at

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all - if not, the patient may need another tube put in. Same thing is true for a
number of postop situations involving chest surgery: open lung biopsies,
lobectomies, pneumonectomies - all these leave an area of lung tissue that
will leak air into the pleural space until they heal, and so require chest tubes
to get rid of that air. So air leaks in those cases are also good. But say a
patient still had an air leak two weeks after an open lung biopsy - what then?
17- Would that be a bad situation?
Probably - either the chest tube is leaking and sucking air in around itself
somewhere - which means it isnt working, and ought to be pulled anyhow,
or it means that the patient is continuing to leak air into her chest - at this
distance from the operation, this would mean that the tissue leaking the air
into the pleural space isnt healing - and in fact the patient may have
developed a broncho-pleural fistula - meaning a semi-permanent tract
connecting a bronchus and the pleural space.
This happens a lot with patients who need a lot of inspiratory pressure from
the vent - say, pressure control of 25cm, and peep of 10cm, adding up to
35cm of forward pressure, being pushed into stiff, noncompliant lungs.
Thats a lot. That much pressure means that air is being pushed pretty hard
into those stiff lungs, and that air will be pushed out into the pleural space
too, preventing it from healing closed. That healing wont occur until that
pressure can be mostly reduced, but the patient will lose a lot of ventilation
because of the loss of volume through the fistula. A tough spot to be in. Time
for permissive hypercapnia? Class look that one up and get back to me
there will be no quiz, however. You are safe here in the FAQ!
18- What is the black button on top of the pleurovac for?
This is actually pretty important. Go back to the picture on page 5, and look
at item D. See that button? The air leak chamber of a pleurevac, just like the
first bottle of a drainage set, needs to be partly filled with water thats how
the bubble-trap idea works, like putting the end of the chest tube in a cup of
water, like a one-way valve. You put that water into that chamber when you
set up the pleurevac, through a filling column that has an opening on the top
of the box.

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If you remember to look at the air leak chamber at various times during the
course of your shift, youll notice that the water in it can sometimes rise up
the filling column towards the top of the box. This usually happens if the
patient is pulling very hard with inspiration - what they call excess
negative pressure. Kind of like what high school teachers doin other
words, not only is the patient trying to pull in air through his airway, but also
from the pleurevac itself, which actually he cant, because thats what the air
leak chamber prevents, right? But the water in the trap chamber will rise up
in the filling column after a while, and the air thats trying to escape from the
chest wont be able to get out because of the increased weight of that
column.
The resistance of the air trap, or leak chamber filled with water to the proper
level, is only supposed to be tiny - about 2cm of water - not like the 20cm in
the control column. So what you have to do is lower that column of water
back down to the level indicated on the chamber - theres a line marked on
the box. Holding down the black button is the thing to do - hold the button
down, and the column will slowly sink down towards the correct level - let
go when it gets there. This problem also happens very often with tube
stripping.
19- What is tube stripping?
Stripping is something people argue about a lot. The idea is that if a chest
tube is milked every couple of hours after, say, a surgical procedure, then
it wont get plugged up by clots, which only makes sense, since if the tube
gets plugged, then the air and fluid that its supposed to remove will not get
removed, and a tension situation could develop in the chest. Definitely a bad
thing.
But stripping and milking can pull too hard suction-wise on the chest cavity,
possibly causing tissue injuries to the lung. Also a bad thing. So the only
thing to do is to ask the surgeon what she wants done. If youre instructed
not to strip, watch carefully for signs that the chest tube is still working
properly: draining air, fluid, or blood. If air were to stop coming out three
hours postop a lobectomy - Id page that surgeon right away.
20- How could I tell if a patient were developing a tension situation in
her chest?

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Sometimes the signs and symptoms are obvious, sometimes not. The first
thing to do if you suspect this is to get the team to order a stat chest film and then get it promptly read! Observing the patient, you might see
hypotension, cyanosis, general signs of respiratory distress - maybe even
tracheal deviation to the opposite side as the mediastinum gets pushed across
the chest. If the patient has an arterial line, look for a pulsus paradoxus.
21- What is a pulsus paradoxus?
The idea here is that blood pressure varies as the patient inhales and exhales:
literally goes up and down, maybe by 50 points, systolic. Maybe more.
There are three main situations where you see this: tension pneumothorax,
pericardial tamponade, and (maybe) severe hypovolemia.
Lets take the first one, which is the relevant one here: what happens is that
as the patient gets a breath, the intrathoracic pressure rises. The tension gets
worse - maybe theres already some mediastinal compression. The heart is
squeezed tightly, and compressed, and literally doesnt have room in the
chest to pump.
This makes sense if you think about tension pneumothorax - a lung may go
all the way down, and as the pressure in the chest continues to rise and rise,
with every breath, the mediastinum gets pushed over harder and harder. So
now when the patient gets a breath, the small addition of positive pressure
(assuming theyre vented - in which case positive pressure happens on
inspiration because the vent is pushing the air in) the heart gets squeezed just
a little more, is able to move just a little less - cant pump well - and the
blood pressure drops.
When the patient exhales (on the vent, this is when intrathoracic pressure is
released - after the breath is pushed in) - then the intrathoracic pressure
drops again, and the heart is un-squeezed a bit, the heart can move just a
little better, and the blood pressure rises again. This can sometimes be
clearly seen if the patient has an arterial line - watch the tops of the blood
pressure waves on the A-line as the breaths go in and out - if they drop more
than 15-20 points per breath, youve got a clinically significant pulsus
paradoxus - often a very clear classic sign of pneumothorax. Think about it did the patient just have a central line put in?

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You can measure this by using the arterial line cursor - there is one there,
although we hardly ever use it. Chase the wave tops up and down,
measuring the distance between the tops at inspiration and the tops at
expiration, and find the difference. You might see a dramatic change in a
severe situation, maybe a systolic of 150 dropping to 80.

Heres a nice sample of a pulsus paradoxus showing up on an arterial-line

waveform:

http://critcare.lhsc.on.ca/edu_briefs/jan7a00.html
See the pressures going upand down? ICU nurses: is this patient vented, or
not? Try to calculate: is this pulsus greater than 20 points?
22- Should you ever clamp a chest tube?
Aside from changing the pleurevac, it sounds like a bad idea to me. If the
pleurevac tubing comes disconnected from the chest tube itself, then I would
clamp the tube only long enough to hook up another one, to prevent air from
being sucked back into the chest. But only that long! Did the tube get
contaminated?
23- What if the chest tube gets pulled out by mistake?
Thats what you keep vaseline gauze at the bedside for. You would slap that
gauze right onto the site, (dont really slap the patient, right?) and occlude
the opening - you dont want air going back into the patients chest for the
same reason why youd (briefly!) clamp a chest tube in the question above.
Again, youd want to stat page a surgeon if the patient needed the tube back
in, and get a CXR ordered right away.

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24- What is water seal?

Water seal means that youve disconnected
the wall suction line from the pleurevac (on
purpose). Usually this is ordered when the air
and/or fluid draining from the patient is
assumed to be pretty much over and done
with - several days after surgery - maybe not
in the case of recurrent effusion - maybe a day
or so after pleurodesis when youd expect the
drainage to have stopped. Youd want to watch carefully for signs of reaccumulating air or fluid in the chest - daily, or sometimes twice-daily x-rays
will help determine this. Its done as a maneuver when youre thinking about
pulling the tube after its served its purpose.

25- What is subcutaneous emphysema, and what does it have to do with

chest tubes?

Subcutaneous emphysema is the collection

of air in the tissues just under the skin
once you feel it, youll never forget it: as
though Rice Krispies had been spread
around under the patients skin. If a chest
tube isnt properly placed, or maybe if the
site dressing isnt airtight, air can leak into
the tissue around the insertion site.

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Eventually it can track up and down the body, sometimes causing the neck
and face to swell, sometimes threatening the airway. In that case the patient
should be immediately assessed for intubation - there may be no time to
waste! Correcting the position of the chest tube usually stops the leakage of
air into the tissues, and the air itself is almost always very rapidly reabsorbed
- a matter of several days at most, in my experience.
http://www.aic.cuhk.edu.hk/web8/chest_injuries.htm

Hard to tell which side its coming from both eyes are certainly swollen,
arent they? Is this patient really a little heavy-set, or is that air in her facial
tissue? Actually, if her eyes look like that, its probably the second
Types of Drainage Tubes

One type of drainage tube is a chest tube. This is used when there is a
collection of fluid around one or both lungs. It is inserted directly into
the chest from an opening created in the patient's side. Catheters are
drainage tubes that are inserted into the bladder. These tubes drain the
urine from the bladder so the patient does not have to get up and use
the bathroom, or is unconscious, or maybe having surgery. There is
another drainage tube called a Y-shaped drainage system. This one is
typically used after cardiac surgery where one portion is placed in the
pericardial space, while the other end is placed in the pleural space.
This tube helps to ensure that fluid does not build up around the heart
after open-heart surgery.
Classic PVC chest tubes
Sizes 14 36 french
Stiff
Inserted surgically
Good for
Thick fluid (blood, pus)
Large air leaks
Bad for
Pain, wound infections
Tubes
Small bore tubes

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Pigtails (8-14 Fr)

Strait pneumothorax tubes (8 Fr.)
Percutaneous
With or w/o image guidance
More comfortable, less traumatic
Plugs easily, need for flushing
Good for lighter fluids, most airleaks
Tunneled pleural catheters (Pleurx)
Malignant effusions
Long term use
Intermittent home drainage
Low complication rates
Soft / Comfortable

Chest Drainage Catheters

Pleural Catheter with Flexible Introducer (Non USA)

Not available in USA

The unique Portex Flexible Introducer has been designed to follow modern
trauma and emergency management techniques of chest injury patients
which preclude the use trocars to insert drains. It satisfies the need to
establish chest drainage rapidly with minimal risk of causing further internal
injury to the patient.
Product Benefits
Catheter
o Kink-resistant smooth finish PVC
o Radio-opaque line
o Large smooth finish drainage eyes

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Depth markings
o Integral size-specific large bore and tapered connector
Flexible Introducer
o Malleable polythene-covered stainless steel
o 280mm length
o Marked for correct positioning within the catheter
o Assists greatly with the blunt dissection technique by providing
a degree of rigidity to aid and control insertion
o Avoids the risks associated with the use of trocars
o Can be shaped to best suit clinician needs and patient anatomy
o Specifically designed to match the catheter size
o

Chest Drainage Catheters

Pleural Catheters for Blunt Dissection (Non USA)

Not available in USA

Designed to quickly establish non-operative pleural drainage for the relief of

life-threatening chest conditions such as tension pneumothorax.
Ideally suited for insertion by blunt dissection, as advocated by modern
trauma and emergency management techniques.
Product Benefits
Kink-resistant smooth finish PVC
Radio-opaque line

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Large smooth finish drainage eyes

Depth markings
Integral size-specific large bore and tapered connector
Specific pediatric connectors

Chest Drainage Catheters

Standard Trocar Catheters (Non USA)

Not available in USA

Standard Tip Trocar Catheter from Smiths Medical.

Product Benefits
Trocars:
o Special tri-faced cutting tip
o Flat handle to help control insertion
Catheters:
o Kink-resistant smooth finish PVC
o Tapered tip which blends into the trocar tip to minimize tissue
drag
o Radio-opaque line
o Large smooth finish drainage eyes
o Depth markings
o Integral large bore and tapered connector
o Specific pediatric connectors
BACKGROUND: Cardiac tamponade may occur following cardiac
surgery as a result of blood or fluid collecting in the pericardial space

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compressing the heart and reducing cardiac output. Mediastinal chest

drains (including pericardial drains) are inserted as standard postoperative practice following cardiac surgery to assist the clearance of
blood from the pericardial space and to prevent cardiac tamponade.
Manipulation techniques including milking, stripping, fanfolding and
tapping may be applied to the tubes to keep them from blocking.
Evidence is required as to the safest and most effective means of
preventing chest tube blockage and preventing cardiac tamponade.
Contraindications
Contraindications to chest tube placement include refractory coagulopathy,
lack of cooperation by the patient, and diaphragmatic hernia. Additional
contraindications include scarring in the pleural space (adhesions)