Pitfalls

There are a number of pitfalls that can occur during treatment of pneumothoraces:

Failure to identify a pneumothorax as secondary and thus following the wrong BTS management algorithm
Discharging a patient with a secondary pneumothorax from the ED
Belief that ‘the absence of a hiss’ on attempted needle decompression excludes a tension pneumothorax
Use of excessive force when inserting track dilators and chest drains
Insertion of chest drains outside of the ‘safe triangle
Failure to give patients advice on smoking cessation
Failure to advise patients against flying and diving
Failure to organise review of discharged patients