When receiving mechanical injuries, wounds in the chest area, a process that is dangerous to the life of the affected person - valve pneumothorax - often occurs. It is an air filling of the pleural cavity around the lung. Moreover, the gas can flow only inwards, without having an outlet to the outside, forming a kind of one-way valve.
Symptoms of valve pneumothorax
The signs of the pathology in question indicate a severe general condition of the body:
- severe shortness of breath;
- frequent pulse ;
- cyanosis;
- low blood pressure;
- loss of consciousness;
- severe pain in the chest area;
- the agitation of the victim;
- swelling of the veins on the arms and neck;
- tachycardia ;
- widening of the gaps between the ribs and simultaneous bulging of the breast from the side of the injured lung.
Emergency help with valve pneumothorax
First of all, you need to call a team of doctors. If the risk of death is high before their arrival, you can try to normalize the pressure in the pleural zone yourself.
First aid for valve pneumothorax:
- Provide the victim with complete immobility.
- Sterilize a thick needle or any object in the form of a thin long tube, for example, the plastic sheath of a ballpoint pen.
- Pierce the chest wall from the damaged side and leave the drainage inside so that on the surface there are about half the device.
- If the pressure could not be normalized, it is necessary to put on the outer end of the tube a valve made of rubber - a balloon, a condom, a finger of a medical glove.
Treatment of valve pneumothorax
After hospitalization, decompression of the lung and mediastinum is immediately carried out, excess air is evacuated, pleural drainage is performed.
When the patient's condition is normalized, he is transferred to a hospital with follow-up therapy:
- cardiovascular drugs;
- antibiotics;
- anti-shock;
- analgesics;
- oxygen inhalation.