Get Drainage Tube Placement

Thoracostomy inserts a thin plastic tube into the space between the lungs and the chest wall. The doctor may attach the tube to a suction device to remove excess fluid or air. Or, the doctor may use it to deliver medication into the space to decrease the likelihood that fluid will accumulate.

It is airtight and helps restore negative pressure in the thoracic cavity. [12] The chest tube drainage system must be maintained in an upright position below the patient's chest to facilitate drainage. It should be placed on a non-movable surface or hung on the bed to prevent accidental dislodgment.

Chest tubes drain blood, fluid, or air from around your lungs, heart, or esophagus. The tube around your lung is placed between your ribs and into the space between the inner lining and the outer lining of your chest cavity. This is called the pleural space.

Your doctors will discuss with you how long the drain needs to stay in. This may be from between one day to one to two weeks, depending on how well you are responding to treatment. You may need to have several chest X-rays during this time to see how much fluid or air remains.

Both the one and two-bottle chest drainage systems rely on gravity to create a pressure gradient by which air and fluid leave the chest. Keeping the drainage system below the level of the patient's chest enhances gravity drainage; additional pressure is created when the patient exhales or coughs.

Place patient in semi-Fowler's position for easier breathing. Patient should be in a semi-Fowler's position, have minimal pain, have no respiratory distress, and have no evidence of an air leak around the insertion site, and no drainage from the insertion site or chest tube equipment.

This means that a chest drain should be inserted just above the upper border of the rib to avoid damage to the neuro-vascular bundle. The long thoracic nerve runs down the lateral border of the thorax and so chest drains should be inserted anterior to the mid-axillary line to avoid damage to this structure.

Someone will usually raise the arm on the affected side above the head. Identifying the tube insertion site. This will typically be between the fourth and fifth ribs or between the fifth and sixth ribs, just behind the pectoralis (chest) muscle.