The second priority is the establishment of effective breathing or ventilation.
Principles[edit | edit source]
Basic Anatomy[edit | edit source]
Assessment[edit | edit source]
LOOK[edit | edit source]
Are any of the following present:
- Cyanosis?
- Penetrating injury?
- Presence of flail chest?
- Sucking chest wounds?
- Use of accessory muscles of ventilation
FEEL for[edit | edit source]
- Tracheal shift
- Broken ribs
- Chest wall expansion on both sides of the chest
- Subcutaneous emphysema.
Percussion is useful for diagnosis of haemothorax and pneumothorax.
LISTEN with a stethoscope for[edit | edit source]
- Pneumothorax (decreased breath sounds on site of injury)
- Detection of abnormal sounds in the chest. = == Management ===
- Give oxygen
- Assisted ventilation with BVM
- Address any penetrating wounds
- Immediately decompress tension pneumothorax.
- Drain haemothorax or pneumothorax
(Breathing management is covered in detail in Appendix 2)