Learn About Left lateral Insertion When Treating a Tension Pneumothorax

Learn About Left lateral Insertion When Treating a Tension Pneumothorax


So we're on left lateral insertion for needle decompression, and we have the Enhanced ARS. We got a 10 gauge here, and Jen is going to show us placement now that we found it.

So I come up, identify where the pectoralis muscle is, feeling where my rib location is going to come. I go and look for the rib, checking my angle, making sure I'm not going down too posterior where I'm going to miss the chest or I'm not going too anterior where I go directly underneath that muscle.

I'm still perpendicular, I'm still guesstimating where my three lines are, where my inch is going to be. I'm going up over that rib towards the head, and this particular area I want to make sure that I'm feeling for that pop so that I don't go too far and hit that heart. Found the pop, now I'm going to angle, I'm going to stabilize my needle and my catheter threads straight up to the patient's clavicle. The needle comes out.

Perfect. So again, what we're going to do is as soon as you feel the pop from the pleural cavity, that's where we want to stop the needle from advancing. And we're going to take the catheter and thread that catheter in, hold it for a few seconds, and then secure it per your protocols.

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