Today I review, link to, and embed POCUS Geek‘s POCUS – Fall from ladder with lung point and pneumothorax.
All that follows is from the above resource.
Nov 9, 2021A young adult patient fell off a ladder from a height of 8-10 feet. They presented with left chest wall pain and left upper quadrant abdominal pain. Vital signs showed borderline low blood pressure, mild tachycardia, and mild tachypnea. The patient reported shortness of breath and difficulty respiration.
Supine chest x-ray has a poor sensitivity to identify pneumothorax and often misses the diagnosis as it did in this case. Ultrasound which has significantly higher sensitivities for identifying pneumothorax was used in this case.
An EFAST exam was performed and a lung point identified which indicates the presence of a pneumothorax. In this video we review the EFAST exam and identification of the pneumothorax.
Author: Jared T Marx MD
