Thorax Flashcards
Chest pain is the most important symptom of what
Cardiac disease
What else may chest pain occur with
Pulmonary disease, intestinal, gallbladder, and musculoskeletal disorders
What do people with heart attack describe their chest pain as
Crushing substernal pain that does not disappear with rest
Why is the 1st rib rarely fractured
Protected
First rib fracture is commonly viewed as a hallmark of severe injury in ___ trauma
Blunt
When the first rib is broken things crossing its superior aspect may be injured. What is there
Brachial plexus of nerves and subcclavian vessels that serve the upper limb
What ribs are most commonly fractured
Middle
Most common cause of rib fracture
Blow or crushing injuries
What is the weakest part of the rib
Just anterior to its angle. However direct violence may fracture a rib anywhere
What is of concern with broken end of rib
Injure internal organs such as a lung and or spleen
Fractures of the lower ribs may damage what
Diaphragm
What may a lower rib tear in the diaphragm cause
Diaphragmatic hernia
Why are rib fractures painful
Broken parts move during respiration, coughing, laughing, and sneezing.
Flail chest
Multiple rib fractures may allow a sizable segment of the anterior and,or lateral thoracic wall to move freely ,,
In flail chest, the loose segment of the wall moves _____
Paradoxically
(Inward on inspiration and outward of expiration)
If flail chest painful
YES VERYYYY and affects oxygenation of the blood
Thoracotomy
Surgical creation of an opening through the thoracic wall to enter a pleural cavity
Anterior thoracotomy
H shaped cuts through the perichondrium of one or more costal cartilages and then shelling out segments to get access to thoracic cavity
Where may posterolateral thoracotomy
5th-7th intercostal spaces
When doing the posterolateral thoracotomy why is the patient on their side with arm abducted
Elevates and laterally rotates the inferior angle of scapula, allowing access as high as the 4th intercostal space.
Is the neuromuscular bundle above of below rib
Above
Rib retraction
To do surgery through one intercostal scape
Incision for pneumonectomy
Bigger H shaped incision to incise superficial aspect of the periosteum that ensheaths the rain, strip the periosteum from the rib and then excise a wide segment of the rib to gain better access
In the absence of rib, an incision can be made through deep aspect of periosteal sheath , spacing the adjacent intercostal muscles
After the operation the missing pieces of the ribs regenerate from the intact periosteum although imperfectly