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Thank you-- that brings up another question I had...
I was trained in the schoolhouse that *anyone* with a penetrating chest wound should get a chest tube prior to air evac, even without S/S... this always seemed like *Very* aggressive treatment to me (and is one of the reasons I was particularly enthused about this cath, as a compromise for the air-evac patient)... since the chest tube is an austere environment is very far from ideal, albeit sometimes a neccessary lifesaving procedure. What guidelines are appropriate as to when either chest-tube or the cook cath should be used for an air-evac patient? I'm quite comfortable as far as treatment thresholds for ground patients, but how much more aggressive should I be if he's potentially going to be exposed to pressure changes that could gravely excacerbate a condition that's barely detectable on the ground. I can imagine how the chest tube represents less danger to a (possibly) inflated lung than the cath needle...
Any thoughts?
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