Advice on air evacuation after pneumothorax?

[Kesler, Alison M.]

There are medical escorts that can at least place a Heimlich valve if needed; it would buy some time until one could get to a hospital. I can't see placing a chest tube on an airplane......imagine how the "regular folks" would respond to that....................but place a Heimlich and  boom, over before you know it!!!!! 
I know of many, many nurses who do this regularly on helos and planes. It's easy. 
 
:)  My 2 cents
Oh--and, yes, most aircraft, even twin engines that do medevac are pressurized to 8000 ft 

________________________________

From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org on behalf of Eran Tal-or
Sent: Wed 04/07/2007 3:07 AM
To: Trauma & Critical Care mailing list
Subject: RE: Advice on air evacuation after pneumothorax?



Mike



There are few answers to the question.

1.    Ten day without any residual pneumothorax the patient can travel

2.    There is a need for medical escort with capability of inserting
chest tube.

3.    The best way is to fly him by air ambulance. Keep the cabin in see
level pressure





Dr Eran Tal-Or

Trauma Unit

Rambam Medical Center   





-----Original Message-----
From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org
[mailto:trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org] On Behalf Of Sise, Mike MD
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 7:57 PM
To: trauma-list at trauma.org
Subject: Advice on air evacuation after pneumothorax?



We have a young male victim of a car crash one month ago in which he

suffered a C7 burst fractures with qudraplegia, multiple bilateral rib

fractures with bilateral hemo-pnuemothoraces and pulmonary contusions.

Last chest tube discontinued 10 days ago. Weaned to trach collar with

supplemental oxygen, saturating well with clear chest X-ray and no

reidual pneumothorax on CT scan chest abdomen pelvis yesterday.



Family lives on East Coast US, we are in San Diego. Tentativley planning

air evacutation to an East Coast spinal injury rehab center next week,

less than 3 weeks since last chest tube out . What impact, if any, does

the chest injury have on the safety of air evacuation? We routinely

counsel patients not to fly for 6 to 12 weeks after a pneumothorax. Is

this supported by evidence or is this another trauma urban legend?



Your thoughts?



Mike Sise



"Scripps Information Security"

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it may contain privileged and
confidential information and are intended solely for the use of the
individual or entity to which they are addressed. If you are not the
intended recipient or the person responsible for delivering the e-mail
to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination or copying of this e-mail or any of its attachment(s) is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please
immediately notify the sending individual or entity by e-mail and
permanently delete the original e-mail and attachment(s) from your
computer system. Thank you for your cooperation.





========================================================================
======

--

trauma-list : TRAUMA.ORG

To change your settings or unsubscribe visit:

http://www.trauma.org/index.php?/community/



--

This message has been scanned for viruses and

dangerous content by Rambam Medical Center Mail Scanner, and is

believed to be clean.




--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by Rambam Medical Center Mail Scanner, and is
believed to be clean.

--
trauma-list : TRAUMA.ORG
To change your settings or unsubscribe visit:
http://www.trauma.org/index.php?/community/
Confidentiality Disclaimer: 
This e-mail message, including attachments, may contain confidential 
or privileged information and is for the sole use of the intended 
recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby 
notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this 
message or any attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have 
received this e-mail in error, please immediately contact the sender 
by reply e-mail and destroy the message.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 7865 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.mistral.net/pipermail/trauma-list/attachments/20070704/934e32a6/attachment.bin