ArticleJournal of cardiothoracic surgery2013
Tension pneumothorax, is it a really life-threatening condition?
Article in Journal of cardiothoracic surgery, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis of the optimal needle length and decompression site for tension pneumothorax and consensus recommendations on current ATLS and ETC guidelines.World journal of emergency surgery : WJES · 2025Pooled it
- Physiological Persistence of Tension Pneumothorax After Minor Diaphragmatic Injury During Laparoscopic Adrenalectomy: A Case Report.Case reports in anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Pneumothorax detection and segmentation from chest X-ray radiographs using a patch-based fully convolutional encoder-decoder network.Frontiers in radiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Spontaneous pneumomediastinum in a young adult female.Journal of radiology case reports · 2022Article
- Spontaneous tension pneumothorax as a complication of Coronavirus disease 2019: Case report and literature review.Clinical case reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTension pneumothorax is a life-threatening occurrence that is infrequently the consequence of spontaneous pneumothorax. The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors for the development of tension pneumothorax and its effect on clinical outcomes.
methodsWe reviewed patients who were admitted with spontaneous pneumothorax between August 1, 2003 and December 31, 2011. Electronic medical records and the radiological findings were reviewed with chest x-ray and high-resolution computed tomography scans that were retrieved from the Picture Archiving Communication System.
resultsOut of the 370 patients included in this study, tension pneumothorax developed in 60 (16.2%). The bullae were larger in patients with tension pneumothorax than in those without (23.8 ± 16.2 mm vs 16.1 ± 19.1 mm; P = 0.007). In addition, the incidence of tension pneumothorax increased with the lung bulla size. Fibrotic adhesion was more prevalent in the tension pneumothorax group than in that without (P = 0.000). The bullae were large in patients with fibrotic adhesion than in those without adhesion (35.0 ± 22.3 mm vs 10.4 ± 11.5 mm; P = 0.000). On multivariate analysis, the size of bullae (odds ratio (OR) = 1.03, P = 0.001) and fibrotic adhesion (OR = 10.76, P = 0.000) were risk factors of tension pneumothorax. Hospital mortality was 3.3% in the tension pneumothorax group and it was not significantly different from those patients without tension pneunothorax (P = 0.252).
conclusionsTension pneumothorax is not uncommon, but clinically fatal tension pneumothorax is extremely rare. The size of the lung bullae and fibrotic adhesion contributes to the development of tension pneumothorax.
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