European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NON-INVASIVE CONSERVATIVE MANAGEMENT OF MILD PNEUMOTHORAX AFTER A BLUNT CHEST TRAUMA: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY AT KING HUSSIEN MEDICAL HOSPITAL

Mutaz Haddadin MD*, Qasem Alqaisi MD, Saad Alwraikat MD, Suhaib Almaghariz MD, Abdullah Al Hiary MD, Ghidaa Maswadah

ABSTRACT

Objective: to assess the efficiency of conservative management of simple pneumothorax after a blunt chest trauma. Methodology: It's a retrospective study of 120 patients managed conservatively at King Hussein Medical Hospital over 3 years from 20th of March 2022 to 1st of April 2025. Data were collected from patients’ electronic files (HAKEEM); all patients with mild pneumothorax after trauma were included in our study. The exclusion criteria were patients with simple spontaneous pneumothorax or other causes, rather than trauma, penetrating chest trauma, or if the pneumothorax was associated with other injuries. Diagnosis of pneumothorax was clinical and confirmed radiologically by chest X-ray and chest CT scan. All patients underwent chest X-ray for follow-up. Mild pneumothorax was defined clinically as a stable, asymptomatic patient with a pneumothorax that appeared radiologically only. According to the British Thoracic Society (BTS), less than 2cm from the lung margin to the chest wall by X-ray, or if less than 10% of the lung is collapsed by CT scan. If the pneumothorax was mild and within the criteria, the management was noninvasive without a chest tube and followed by serial daily chest X-ray. Patients’ demographic features (age, gender, Weight, height) were collected and recorded, then the patients’ clinical parameters (HR, O2 SAT, RR, BP) were registered. Then all data were analyzed statistically using Chi-square or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate, to explore the association between Pneumothorax. SPSS IBM software version 28 was used to analyze the data. Results:  A total of 120 patients, who were diagnosed with mild pneumothorax. The mean age was 29+-0.3 years. A 29 % (n=35) where female patients with higher percentage in male patient (70%, n=85). All patients (100%) were managed conservative initially, 3 patients (0.025%) showed failure of medical management and they need insertion of chest tube with nonsignificant P-value test. Table 1. Conclusion: We conclude that, noninvasive and conservative management of simple and mild pneumothorax is cost effective and safe method.

Keywords: mild pneumothorax, chest tube.