ReviewScandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine2021
Complications associated with pre-hospital open thoracostomies: a rapid review.
Review in Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Severe trauma care: advances and future directions in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and information technology support.Medical review (2021) · 2026Article
- Prehospital diagnostic performance of emergency physicians in identifying blunt traumatic pneumothorax requiring early decompression.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Evolving role of point-of-care ultrasound in prehospital emergency care: a narrative review.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Review
- Finger thoracostomy: Significant risks and unproven benefits in prehospital settings.Transfusion · 2025Article
- The safety and efficacy of additional chest tube placement in patients with prolonged air leaks after pulmonary resection: a propensity score-matched analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Chest Tube Placement in Mechanically Ventilated Trauma Patients: Differences between Computed Tomography-Based Indication and Clinical Decision.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOpen thoracostomies have become the standard of care in pre-hospital critical care in patients with chest injuries receiving positive pressure ventilation. The procedure has embedded itself as a rapid method to decompress air or fluid in the chest cavity since its original description in 1995, with a complication rate equal to or better than the out-of-hospital insertion of indwelling pleural catheters. A literature review was performed to explore potential negative implications of open thoracostomies and discuss its role in mechanically ventilated patients without clinical features of pneumothorax. MAIN
findingsA rapid review of key healthcare databases showed a significant rate of complications associated with pre-hospital open thoracostomies. Of 352 thoracostomies included in the final analysis, 10.6% (n = 38) led to complications of which most were related to operator error or infection (n = 26). Pneumothoraces were missed in 2.2% (n = 8) of all cases.
conclusionThere is an appreciable complication rate associated with pre-hospital open thoracostomy. Based on a risk/benefit decision for individual patients, it may be appropriate to withhold intervention in the absence of clinical features, but consideration must be given to the environment where the patient will be monitored during care and transfer. Chest ultrasound can be an effective assessment adjunct to rule in pneumothorax, and may have a role in mitigating the rate of missed cases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.