UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Critical Care

Title: Re-expansion pulmonary edema

Keywords: pulmonary edema, tube thoracostomy (PubMed Search)

Posted: 9/25/2007 by Mike Winters, MD (Updated: 3/28/2024)
Click here to contact Mike Winters, MD

-Reexpansion pulmonary edema represents a potentially life-threatening complication of tube thoracostomy (mortality rate as high as 20 percent) -It usually occurs after rapid reexpansion of a collapsed lung in patients with a pneumothorax -It may also follow evacuation of large volumes of pleural fluid (>1.0 to 1.5 liters) or after removal of an obstructing tumor -The incidence of edema appears to be related to the rapidity of lung reexpansion and to the severity and duration of lung collapse -The clinical manifestations vary from isolated radiographic changes to complete cardiopulmonary collapse -Treatment is supportive, mainly consisting of supplemental oxygen and, if necessary, mechanical ventilation