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Pediatrics: General Medicine > Pulmonology
Hemothorax
Article Last Updated: Oct 16, 2007
AUTHOR AND EDITOR INFORMATION
Section 1 of 11  
Author: Denise Serebrisky, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Director, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Lewis M Fraad Department of Pediatrics, Jacobi Medical Center; Director, Jacobi Asthma and Allergy Center for Children
Denise Serebrisky is a member of the following medical societies: American Thoracic Society
Coauthor(s):
S Allen Fagenholz, MD, Consulting Staff, Department of Pediatrics, St Vincent Health Center and Hamot Medical Center
Editors: Thomas Scanlin, MD, Chief, Division of Pediatric Pulmonary & Cystic Fibrosis, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Group; Mary L Windle, PharmD, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine.com, Inc; Charles Callahan, DO, Professor, Deputy Chief of Clinical Services, Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Mary E Cataletto, MD, Associate Director, Division of Pediatric Pulmonology, Winthrop University Hospital; Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Pediatrics, State University of New York at Stony Brook; Michael R Bye, MD, Attending Physician, Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Author and Editor Disclosure
Synonyms and related keywords:
hemothorax, pleural space, trauma, blood in the pleural space, fibrothorax, nontraumatic hemothorax, spontaneous hemothorax, hemopneumothorax, pneumothorax, congenital cystic adenomatoid malformations, CCAM
Background
Hemothorax is the presence of blood in the pleural space. The source of blood may be the chest wall, lung parenchyma, heart, or great vessels. The condition is usually a consequence of blunt or penetrating trauma. It may also be a complication of several diseases or may be iatrogenically induced.
Pathophysiology
Normally, the pleural space, which is between the parietal and visceral pleurae, is only a potential space. Air or fluid in the space may compromise lung expansion. Blood in the pleural space can be associated with both hemorrhagic shock and respiratory compromise: it must be effectively evacuated to prevent complications such as fibrothorax and empyema.
Frequency
United States
In a 34-month period at a large level-one trauma center, 2086 children younger than 15 years were admitted with blunt or penetrating trauma; 104 (4.4%) had thoracic trauma.1 Of the patients with thoracic trauma, 15 had hemopneumothorax (26.7% mortality rate), and 14 had hemothorax (57.1% mortality rate). Many of these patients had other severe extrathoracic injuries. Nontraumatic hemothorax carries a much lower mortality rate. In another series of children with penetrating chest injuries (ie, stab or gunshot wounds), the morbidity rate was 8.51% (8 of 94).2 Complications included atelectasis (3), intrathoracic hematoma (3), wound infection (3), pneumonia (2), air leak for more than 5 days (2), and septicemia (1). Note that these statistics apply only to traumatic hemothorax.
History
- Trauma or recent surgical intervention is usually self-evident.
- Occasionally, a hemorrhagic diathesis such as hemorrhagic disease of the newborn or Henoch-Schönlein purpura can lead to spontaneous hemothorax.
- Internal thoracic artery rupture has been reported in association with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- A few patients with spontaneous pneumothorax develop hemothorax.
- Chest pain and dyspnea are common symptoms.
Physical
- Tachypnea is common; shallow breaths may be noted
- Findings include diminished ipsilateral breath sounds and a dull percussion note.
- If substantial systemic blood loss has occurred, hypotension and tachycardia are present.
- Respiratory distress reflects both pulmonary compromise and hemorrhagic shock.
Causes
- Trauma
- Penetrating injuries of the lungs, heart, great vessels, or chest wall are obvious causes of hemothorax. They may be accidental, deliberate, or iatrogenic in origin. In particular, central venous catheter and thoracostomy tube placement are cited as primary causes.
- Blunt trauma of the chest can occasionally result in hemothorax by laceration of internal vessels. However, because of the relatively more elastic chest wall of infants and children, rib fractures may be absent.
- Hemorrhagic diathesis: Case reports involve associated disorders such as hemorrhagic disease of the newborn (eg, vitamin K-deficiency) and Henoch-Schönlein purpura.
- Congenital cystic adenomatoid malformations: These malformations occasionally develop complications, such as hemothorax.
- Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations: These malformations in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia have been reported to cause hemothorax.
- Von Recklinghausen disease: A case of massive spontaneous hemothorax has been recently reported.
- Connective tissue disorders
- Spontaneous internal thoracic artery hemorrhage was reported in a child with type IV Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- Hemothorax has also been reported in association with costal cartilaginous anomalies.
- Rib tumors have rarely been reported in association with hemothorax. Intrathoracic rupture of an osteosarcoma of a rib caused hemorrhagic shock in a 13-year-old girl.
- Spontaneous pneumothorax: Hemothorax has been noted to complicate a small fraction of these cases. Although rare, it is more likely to occur in young adolescent males and can be life threatening secondary to massive bleeding.
Empyema
Pleural Effusion
Imaging Studies
- Radiography
- Plain radiography of the upright chest may be adequate to establish diagnosis by blunting at the costophrenic angle or an air-fluid interface if a hemopneumothorax is present.
- If the patient cannot be positioned upright, a supine chest radiograph may reveal apical capping of fluid surrounding the superior pole of the lung. A lateral extrapulmonary density may suggest fluid in the pleural space.
- CT scanning
- Thoracic CT scanning has a definite role in evaluation, particularly if plain radiography results are ambiguous or initial therapy is inadequate.
- CT scanning is particularly helpful in localizing loculated collections of blood.
- Bedside ultrasonography
- Even with the use of chest radiography and helical CT, some injuries can remain undetected. In particular, patients with penetrating chest injuries may harbor serious cardiac injury and a pericardial effusion that may be clinically difficult to determine.
- Bedside echocardiography can provide immediate, accurate information regarding the pericardium and the need for immediate surgery. It can also improve patient outcome.
Medical Care
- Prehospital care
- Assess airway, breathing, and circulation. Evaluate for the possibility of tension pneumothorax. Assess vital signs and pulse oximetry. Administer oxygen and establish an intravenous line.
- Needle decompression of a tension pneumothorax may be necessary.
- Initial treatment is directed to cardiopulmonary stabilization and evacuation of the pleural blood collection.
- If the patient is hypotensive, establish a large-bore intravenous line. Commence appropriate fluid resuscitation with blood transfusion as necessary.
- To evacuate, place a large-bore thoracotomy tube directed toward the costophrenic angle.
- If a conventional chest tube is not removing the blood collection, further steps may be necessary. Conventional treatment involves placement of a second thoracostomy tube. However, in many patients, this therapy is ineffective, necessitating further intervention.
- Video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) is an alternative treatment that permits direct removal of clot and precise placement of chest tubes. VATS is associated with fewer postoperative complications and shorter hospital stays compared with thoracostomy.
- Emergency department care
- The patient should be sitting upright unless other injuries contraindicate this position. Administer oxygen and reassess airway, breathing, and circulation.
- Obtain an upright chest radiograph as quickly as possible.
- If the patient is hemodynamically unstable, immediately commence fluid resuscitation (eg, 20 mL/kg of Ringer lactate).
- The need for a chest tube in an asymptomatic patient is unclear, but if the patient has any respiratory distress, direct the large-bore chest tube toward the costophrenic angle as the chest radiograph indicates.
- A recent innovation is intrapleural fibrinolytic treatment of traumatic clotted hemothorax. Either 250,000 units of streptokinase or 100,000 units of urokinase was instilled daily into intrapleural space on 2-15 occasions. The overall success rate was 92%.
- Finally, if a fibrothorax develops despite previously mentioned therapeutic modalities, a decortication procedure may be necessary to permit lung expansion and reduce the risk of empyema.
Consultations
- Consult a thoracic surgeon with pediatric experience or a pediatric surgeon in most cases. Recent literature reviews recommend surgery early in the management of spontaneous hemopneumothorax to reduce associated morbidity.
- In certain cases, consult a pulmonologist.
- No data support routine antibiotic coverage of chest tubes.
- Pain control may require intravenous opioid analgesic agents, intracostal nerve blocks around the chest tube site, or both. Low suction should be used on the chest tube.
Further Inpatient Care
- Monitor the patient clinically and radiographically until pleural blood collection has resolved. In most instances, this requires inpatient management with serial chest radiography. Once the pleural collection has resolved, a recurrence is unlikely and the patient may be discharged.
- A chest tube is usually put to water seal after the lung is fully reexpanded on radiography, fluid drainage is less than 50 mL in 24 hours, and no significant residual air leak is present. Situations may exist when a chest tube must be clamped. When no recurrence of air or fluid collection occurs on follow-up radiographic studies, the tube is then usually removed. A postremoval radiograph is obtained.
Complications
- Empyema occurs in approximately 5% of cases.
- Fibrothorax occurs in about 1% of cases.
Prognosis
- The vast majority of patients who survive a hemothorax have a good outcome; however, approximately 15% may show persistent radiographic abnormalities of the pleural space.
Patient Education
- Most cases of hemothorax are associated with isolated traumatic episodes; however, those few patients who have medical conditions associated with spontaneous hemothorax should be administered the appropriate information to minimize risk of recurrence.
Medical/Legal Pitfalls
- Failure to recognize hemothorax
- Failure to realize legal consequences of inflicted injury or therapeutic misadventure
Special Concerns
- Children may have traumatic hemothorax without bony fractures of the chest wall.
| Media file 1:
Upright posteroanterior (PA) chest radiograph of a patient with right hemothorax. |
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Media type: X-RAY
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| Media file 2:
Contrast enhanced CT scan of a patient with right hemothorax. |
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Media type: CT
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Hemothorax excerpt Article Last Updated: Oct 16, 2007
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