Clinical features
Symptoms:
- may be asymptomatic
- rapid onset pleuritic chest pain
- breathlessness is seldom severe unless a tension pneumothorax develops
Signs:
- tachypnoea
- examination of the chest over a pneumothorax reveals:
- reduced expansion
- hyperresonance
- reduced breath sounds
- occasionally there is an inspiratory click
- in a tension pneumothorax:
- quick diagnosis and treatment are essential
- breathlessness may increase rapidly
- the shift of the mediastinum and apex beat is away from the side of the lesion
- cyanosis is unusual unless there is a tension pneumothorax or underlying lung disease
Related pages
Create an account to add page annotations
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.