New Site Image, X-rays, and Hemothorax

Just added another graphic to the blog (thus the picture in the upper right corner of your screen). This is the chest x-ray of what appears to be a male suffering a right hemothorax. For those of you that do not know what a hemothorax is, it occurs when blood starts to fill up in the pleuritic space of the lung. (For all practical purposes, pleural membranes are membranes that surround the lung and the chest wall and leave a space so that the lung does not rub during respirations). Anyway, a hemothorax is bad because as the pleuritic space begins to fill with blood, there is less and less room for the lung to expand. If left uncorrected, the lung will collapse causing respiratory failure and eventually death. The best way to treat it is with a chest tube which is usually installed only in the ER. (I am told that in the military sometimes the medics are allowed to insert a chest tube.)

Now, as for the x-ray interpretation. If you look at the left lung (on the right side of the x-ray) you will notice how it is black. That is because what you are seeing is mainly air (a good thing in the lungs). Denser tissue is white. This is how a normal lung is supposed to look. Now look at the right lung (on the left side of the x-ray) and look at the bottom of the lung. You will see how much whiter that area is. This area is blood. There is a lot of blood in this area and hopefully a chest tube was inserted.

The insertion of a chest tube is shown below: