MD Journey » pneumothorax http://mdjourney.com Thu, 17 May 2012 20:32:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Medical Term of the Day: Pneumothorax http://mdjourney.com/medical-term-of-the-day-pneumothorax http://mdjourney.com/medical-term-of-the-day-pneumothorax#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:22:02 +0000 Steve http://premedjourney.com/?p=25

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?

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