Nurse-performed Lung Ultrasound Versus Chest Radiography for Detection of Pneumothorax After Mediastinal Drainage Removal Post Cardiac Surgery.

To avoid the accumulation of blood and fluids in the mediastinum or pleural cavities after cardiac surgery, mediastinal and pleural drains are routinely used. The rate of pneumothorax following chest drain removal is approximately 1.5-13%, resulting in increased patient morbidity and hospital stay. The standard method for the determination of pneumothorax (PNX) in most institutions is to obtain a chest radiography (CXR) following chest tube removal, but the reliability of the supine anteroposterior chest radiography is not utter, with up to 30% of pneumothoraxes misdiagnosis. The delay of ordering, performing and interpreting a CXR post mediastinal tube removal, results in potential delay in patients transfers, with an estimated cost savings of omitting an additional chest radiography, of approximately $10 000 per year.

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is recommended for detection of pneumothorax as per evidence-based guidelines and expert consensus. Lung ultrasound is a safe technique due to minimal radiation, with the potential for immediate results when compared with the standard CXR. LUS has high accuracy for PNX detection, with better pooled sensitivities (78.6%) when compared to CXR (39.8%) and equal specificity (98.4 vs 99.3%). In intensive care units, those results have been reproducible, with LUS having greater sensitivity than CXR for PNX diagnosis (0.87 vs 0.46) and equal specificity, 0.99 vs 1.00. LUS is more accurate and faster than chest radiography.