This is the first of two episodes looking at pneumothoraces. In this episode we're going to start out by taking a look at traumatic pneumothoraces.

Traumatic pneumothoraces are present in about a fifth of multiple trauma patients, so it's not infrequent to come across them and they can obviously occur in those with isolated chest injury too. Thoracic trauma occurs in around two thirds of multi-trauma cases and is classified as the primary cause of death in a quarter of trauma patients.

The clinical assessment carries with it a fair amount of dogma, including looking for tensions with tracheal deviation, so we'll be running through what the signs we should look for actually mean.

Then we'll move on to a detailed discussion about investigation strategies before finally looking at the guidelines and evidence on the topic, including which we have to intervene with, which we probably shouldn't and those in which there is much uncertainty...

Once again we'd love to hear any comments or questions either via the website or social media.

Enjoy!

Simon, Rob & James

ps; if you’re interested in getting your site involved with the CoMITED Trial then email comited-trial@bristol.ac.uk 

Welcome back to the podcast and to the first episode in collaboration with our new sponsors Zoll, a huge thanks to them in their support of free open access medical education!

First off this month we return to the topic of rib fractures; with an apparent shift in practice to the surgical fixation of multiple rib fractures, we take a look at an early vs late approach and consider the impact these results may have on trauma systems.

Next up it's a prehospital RCT assessing the use of a prehospital strategy including a single troponin to rule out acute coronary syndrome. Will this prove safe when compared to an in hospital strategy and what impact does it have on prehospital resources?

Finally we look at ventilation rates in cardiac arrest management. For as long as we can remember the guidance has been to ventilate at ten breaths per minute, but will a strategy involving a faster ventilatory rate yield better results?

Once again we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback either on the website or via twitter @TheResusRoom.

Simon & Rob