Jung Joo Hwang

Traumatic Tracheobronchial Injury: Delayed Diagnosis and Treatment Outcome

Background Most traumatic tracheobronchial injuries are fatal and result in death. Some milder cases are not life threatening and are often missed at the initial presentation. Tracheobronchial rupture is difficult to diagnose in the evaluation of severe multiple trauma patients. We reviewed the traumatic tracheobronchial injuries at Konyang University and Eulji University Hospital and analyzed the clinical results. Materials and Methods From January 2001 to December 2011, 23 consecutive cases of traumatic tracheobronchial injury after blunt trauma were reviewed retrospectively. We divided them into two groups by the time to diagnosis: group I was defined as the patients who were diagnosed within 48 hours from trauma and group II was the patients who diagnosed 48 hours after trauma. We compared the clinical parameters of the two groups. Results There was no difference in the age and gender between the two groups. The most common cause was traffic accidents (56.5%). The Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 19.6 in group I and 27.5 in group II (p=0.06), respectively. Although the difference in the ISS was not statistically significant, group II tended toward more severe injuries than group I. Computed tomography was performed in 22 cases and tracheobronchial injury was diagnosed in 5 in group I and 6 in group II, respectively (p=0.09). Eighteen patients underwent surgical treatment and all four cases of lung resection were exclusively performed in group II (p=0.03). There were two mortality cases, and the cause of death was shock and sepsis. Conclusion We believe that close clinical observation with suspicion and rigorous bronchoscopic evaluation are necessary to perform diagnosis earlier and preserve lung parenchyma in tracheobronchial injuries from blunt trauma.

Vacuum-Assisted Closure Therapy as an Alternative Treatment of Subcutaneous Emphysema

Vacuum-assisted closure therapy is an alternative method for a massive subcutaneous emphysema treatment. It is easily applicable and shows rapid effectiveness in massive subcutaneous emphysema, intractable with chest tube drainage.

The usefulness of Wi-Fi based digital chest drainage system in the post-operative care of pneumothorax

BACKGROUND Chest drainage systems are usually composed of chest tube and underwater-seal bottle. But this conventional system may restrict patients doing exercise and give clinicians obscure data about when to remove tubes because there is no objective indicator. Recently developed digital chest drainage systems may facilitate interpretation of the grade of air leak and make it easy for clinicians to decide when to remove chest tubes. In addition, with combination of wireless internet devices, monitoring and managing of drainage system distant from the patient is possible. METHODS Sixty patients of primary pneumothorax were included in a prospective randomized study and divided into two groups. Group I (study) consisted of digital chest drainage system while in group II (control), conventional underwater-seal chest bottle system was used. Data was collected from January, 2012 to September, 2013 in Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea. RESULTS There was no difference in age, sex, smoking history and postoperative pain between two groups. But the average length of drainage was 2.2 days in group I and 3.1 days in group II (P<0.006). And more, about 90% of the patients in group I was satisfied with using new device for convenience. CONCLUSIONS Digital system was beneficial on reducing the length of tube drainage by real time monitoring. It also had advantage in portability, loudness and gave more satisfaction than conventional system. Moreover, internet based digital drainage system will be a good method in thoracic telemedicine area in the near future.

Modified blowhole skin incision using negative pressure wound therapy in the treatment of ventilator-related severe subcutaneous emphysema

OBJECTIVES A 2-3-cm blowhole incision in the supraclavicular or infraclavicular area is widely used to eliminate the presence of subcutaneous air in cases of life-threatening subcutaneous emphysema (SE). However, when the patient is supported by mechanical ventilation, it is difficult to eliminate completely such air because mechanical ventilation leads consistently to the formation of large amounts of air. To overcome this, we applied negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) along with blowhole incisions for the treatment of severe SE. METHODS To evaluate the feasibility of NPWT, we retrospectively analysed the clinical outcomes of 10 patients who developed severe SE during ventilator care and were treated with a modified blowhole incision using NPWT from January 2009 to November 2013. RESULTS All patients showed immediate improvement in SE after NPWT, and no symptom aggravation occurred after NPWT. The mean duration of NPWT was 7.5 ± 5.1 (range, 3-14) days, and the mean number of dressing changes was 1.5 ± 0.7 (range, 1-2). There were no blowhole-incision-related wound infections or any other complications. CONCLUSIONS While it is not necessary to apply a blowhole incision with NPWT in all cases of SE, this therapy can be helpful for patients with severe SE associated with mechanical ventilation requiring rapid decompression.