chest

Chest

Percutaneous chest tube

A chest tube is a hollow plastic or silicone tube with the tip positioned within the pleural space of your lungs. The pleural space is the space between the inner and outer lining of your lungs where fluid and/or gas can accumulate.

There are two general types of chest tubes - large diameter (left) and small diameter chest tubes (right). The components of the chest tube include the tip, main body, drainage end, and a collection device. The portion of the tube that you will typically see will be a portion of the main body covered by gauze/tape, the drainage end of the tube, and the collection device.
Depending on your type of chest tube, sometimes your doctor will attach a pneumatic or heimlich valve to the drainage end when they send you home. The valve serves as a 1 way valve that connects to your chest tube and will let extra air and/or fluid out of your chest while letting your lung fully expand.
Chest tubes can be placed following surgery or placed at bedside percutaneously. At bedside, your doctor may use an imaging device called an ultrasound to help guide access into the pleural space. Depending on your specific case, you may or may not be receiving sedation for the chest tube place. If surgically placed following surgeries such as lung resection, typically you will already be under general anesthesia at the time of chest tube placement. If a chest tube is being placed outside the operating room, you will receive local anesthetic at the site of access. The most common location chest tube access site is between the 4th and 5th or between the 5th and 6th rib just behind the chest muscle. Following local anesthetic, your doctor will gain access into the pleural space. Through a series of dilation technique, they will increase the access tract site to accommodate the appropriate size of chest tube. Your chest tube will be sutured to your skin and a layer of drain gauze and tape will be applied over the access site.

The main purpose of a chest tube is to drain fluid and/or air from your pleural space. Fluid and air may collect in the pleural space for many different reasons including post surgical, traumatic, infectious, and malignant reasons. How long you need your drain, the amount of drainage and the color of drainage will be different for every patient. Discuss with your doctor to determine the how long he or she anticipates your drain will stay in for.

  • Change dressing every 7 days or whenever dressing is wet, dirty, or loose
  • If your tube drains into a container, empty the container or drainage bag before it gets full. Record output and color of fluid in MDC tracker.

Supplies needed

  • Medical tape
  • Two 4” x 4” drain split pads
  • Two dressing standard gauze pads
Steps to dressing changes:
  • Wash and dry your hands
  • Remove old chest tube dressing. Be mindful not to pull on the chest tube. Throw mt-25 old dressing away.
  • Clean area around chest tube insertion site with soap and warm water. Let area dry.
  • Take two drain split pads and place around chest tube (as pictured). If you do not have the precut drain pads, you can cut the slits on standard gauze pads as seen below.
  • Open two more standard drain pads and place these two gauze pads over the split pads.
  • Put medical tape covering the gauze pads and tube

Your chest tube drainage end will likely be connected to a heimlich valve which is connected to a small plastic container or drainage bag. The type of collection device you have depends on the volume of fluid you are draining. How often you need to empty your collection device will depend on how much fluid is draining from your chest. Your doctor will inform you how often to expect to empty your collection device/bag.

Follow these steps to empty drainage bag:
  • Check how much fluid is in your collection device. Record amount and color in your MDC tracker.
  • Open collection device and empty fluid into toilet.
  • Close collection device.
  • Wash and dry hands.
Showering guidelines

You may take a shower with your chest tube but it is important to keep your chest tube dressing dry. You can place a waterproof dressing cover such as AquaGuard over the dressing to help it dry. Using a handheld showerhead can also be helpful. If your dressing is damp or wet after a shower, it is important to change the dressing. Wet and damp dressing can irritate your skin and lead to problems such as skin infection.

Do not submerge your dressing and chest tube in water. This includes taking a bath, using a hot tub, or swimming.

  • Fever of 101 °F (38.3 °C) or higher.
  • Skin around insertion site is red, swelling, warm, or painful to touch
  • Drainage leaking around the insertion site of the tube
  • Pain at site or around chest tube insertion site not improving with pain medications
  • Increasing drainage than usual from chest tube
  • Changes and thickness of fluid draining
  • Tube is coming out, bent, or broken