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Thoracic ultrasound has greater than 90% sensitivity for determining the presence of acute traumatic pneumothorax. In normal patients, a high-frequency linear array transducer visualizes the superimposed hyperechoic lines of the visceral and parietal pleura moving during respirations, but this finding, called lung sliding, is absent when air (pneumothorax) separates the pleura. These authors reviewed daily thoracic ultrasound findings during the course of 4 to 26 days (median, 7 days) in 14 patients with pneumothorax (caused by blunt injury in 2 and penetrating injury in 12); 4 patients had bilateral pneumothoraces. Chest radiography, considered the gold standard in this study, was performed at the treating physician’s discretion.
Of 126 pat…