Medical Term of the Day: Pneumothorax

This is a really cool term. A pneumothorax is when someone has air in their thoracic cavity. Basically, air has leaked outside the lungs into the chest. A chest tube must be inserted in order to suck the air out.
A pneumothorax can happen due to trauma to the chest, or they can happen spontaneously. If a chest tube is not inserted, more and more air will leak into the thoracic cavity and build up pressure, causing the lungs to collapse. Crazy eh?

Tagged as: Medical terms, pneumothorax