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Tension pneumothorax decompression with colorimetric capnography: pilot case series

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Abstract

Tension pneumothorax is a life-threatening condition that can develop when either the visceral pleura is disrupted, or with injury to the tracheobronchial tree. Rapid, accurate diagnosis and appropriate management are required to prevent significant atelectasis, hypoxia, circulatory arrest, and ultimate patient demise. Needle decompression is the current standard of care for the management of tension pneumothorax. Healthcare providers struggle to assess the success of decompression due to a lack of any immediate objective feedback. The gaseous composition of tension pneumothorax is similar to that of end respiratory gas. This includes an increased partial pressure of carbon dioxide in comparison to atmospheric air, which makes colorimetric capnography an ideal confirmatory test. This colorimetric capnography device may help the healthcare providers to make an objective and accurate assessment of the success of the needle decompression, in particular in prehospital environments.

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Funding

Dr. Johnathon Aho is funded by the Center for Individualized Medicine, Mayo Clinic (US) and the Mayo Clinic-Office of Translation to Practice, and The State of Minnesota Translational Product Development Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Juna Musa

  2. Department of Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Martin Zielinski, Matthew Hernandez, Michael Traynor, Cillian Mahony, Michael Ferrara & Joseph Immerman

  3. Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Arjunmohan Mohan

  4. Division of Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery, Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, 200 1st Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55902, USA

    Johnathon Aho

Authors
  1. Juna Musa
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  2. Martin Zielinski
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  3. Matthew Hernandez
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  4. Arjunmohan Mohan
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  5. Michael Traynor
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  6. Cillian Mahony
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  7. Michael Ferrara
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  8. Joseph Immerman
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  9. Johnathon Aho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johnathon Aho.

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Conflict of Interest

Mayo Foundation has a financial interest in technologies developed by some authors. Dr. Aho reports patent disclosures for multiple technologies which he does not receive royalty.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board and all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national standards and consistent with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Musa, J., Zielinski, M., Hernandez, M. et al. Tension pneumothorax decompression with colorimetric capnography: pilot case series. Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 70, 59–63 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-021-01686-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-021-01686-2

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