Hey friend!
In this video we are going to talk about the differences between a pneumothorax and a tension
pneumothorax.
And make sure you stick around until the end of the video, because I have a really great
memory trick for you to help you remember this.
Hey there, friend, Christina here with nursingschoolofsuccess.com here to help you raise your grades and have
more free time to spend with your family during nursing school.
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video.
So we're going to start with a pneumothorax.
Just your run of the mill, pneumothorax.
This happens when there is a hole into the space surrounding the lungs, this is called
the pleural space.
so there is this thin space between the lungs and the chest, and that's the pleural space.
So when there's a hole in the pleural space, air from the lungs or from the outside can
leak out into it, causing air to get into that pleural space around the lungs, which
can't be good right?
So when there's air outside of the lung, that lung actually shrinks, it collapses and it
can't expand as much anymore.
The key thing about a pneumothorax is that air can still move in and out of the pleural
space.
So when you inhale, air moves into the pleural space, and when you exhale, the air moves
out of the pleural space.
And during a pneumothorax, as air fills the pleural space, the lung can collapse because
of those differences in air pressure.
There are 2 types of pneumothorax that you need to know about: an open pneumothorax and
a closed pneumothorax.
In an open pneumothorax, there is an opening into the pleural space from outside of the
body, so there is a wound that is OPEN to the outside.
This can be caused by anything that pierces the chest, like a stab wound or other trauma.
The other type of pneumothorax is a closed pneumothorax, and this happens when there
is NO outside wound, so the injury happened inside the body.
This can happen with a rib fracture if the rib pierces into that pleural space, or it
can also happen spontaneously.
Now, here's where things get tricky.
A tension pneumothorax is that same thing, there is a hold into the pleural space, except
air can't escape.
So during inhalation, air is going in, but during exhalation, it can't get out.
So every time you inhale, more and more air gets trapped, and everything inside the chest
gets squished.
There's only so much space inside the chest.
So if it all fills up with air, the lungs get compressed, the blood vessels get compressed
and the heart gets compressed.
So a tension pneumothorax is a life threatening emergency that requires immediate medical
attention, that air's gotta come out, or the heart can't pump, the blood vessels get squished,
and the lungs collapse.
So obviously, that is no good.
Now one thing I do want to note here because instructors LOVE to test you on this, is that
during a tension pneumothorax, it can cause the trachea to shift to the unaffected side.
And I have a really easy way for you to remember this, when you think Tension Pneumothorax,
think Trachea Push.
So TP and TP = Tension Pneumothorax...
Trachea Push.
So if that little memory trick helped you remember this, write LOVE in the comments
below.
And if you need more help with understanding respiratory disorders in nursing school, like
COPD, asthma, and hemothorax, then make sure you join the to get access to all of those
videos that we have for you.
And now click on the next video so you can keep rocking nursing school!
I'll see you over there!